Tribūtum
Originally an extraordinary means of revenue among the Romans, levied on the burgesses in
the proportion of one to three per thousand in times of war, when the means of the State
treasury were of themselves not sufficient, and more especially after B.C. 406, when the State
first took over the payment of the soldiers' wages. When the war was over, the money was
generally repaid from contributions or from the booty. Subsequent to the conquest of
Macedonia, B.C. 167, the income of the State from the provinces was so considerable that the
burgesses, although not legally exempt, ceased any longer to be subject to this payment. The
strictly regulated taxes of the provinces also went by the same name,
tributum
soli, the ground-tax, and
tributum capitis, the personal tax. (See
Stipendium.) Italy, up to his time exempt, was
also made liable to these taxes by Diocletian, towards the end of the third century A.D. Cf.
Portorium;
Vectigalia.
