VICE´SIMA
VICE´SIMA a tax of 5 per cent. (1)
Vicesima libertatis (
C. I. L.
10.3875). When a slave was manumitted, the state claimed 5 per cent. on his
value, by a law passed in 357 B.C. (
Liv. 7.16;
Cic. Att. 2.1. 6,
2; Wilmanns,
Exempla
Inscriptionum Latinarum, 314). The fund thus raised was for
some time at least kept in reserve
ad ultimos
casus; e.g. it was used in a crisis of the Second Punic War, B.C.
209 (
Liv. 27.10). The amount was doubled by
Caracalla and reduced to its original rate by Macrinus (
D. C. 67.9,
68.12). The tax, like
others, was farmed to
publicani (Arrian,
Epict. 2.1, 26; 4.1, 33;
C. I. L.
10.3875); but under the Empire it came to be managed by
procuratores. The slave paid it (Arrian,
Epict. 4.1, 33); if the master chose to pay, the slave was
said to enjoy
gratuita libertas (Suet.
Vesp. 16).
(2)
Vicesima hereditatium et legatorum,
legacy-duty. This differs from all other
vectigalia by touching Roman citizens only: it was thus a sort of
set-off against the disappearance of
tributum
and the absence of land-tax from Italy. Every Roman citizen had to pay to
the
aerarium militare (
AERARIUM) 5 per cent. on any
inheritance or legacy left him. None were exempt except the nearest
relatives of the deceased (
sui heredes) and
persons whose legacy or inheritance did not exceed a certain (unknown) sum
(
D. C. 55.25, Ivi. 28; Plin.
Paneg. 37, 39; Hist, Aug.
M. Aur. 11).
Peregrini and Latini who had become Roman citizens had, in a legal sense, no
relatives, and were therefore obliged in all cases to pay the duty (Plin.
Paneg. 37). It is often said to have been introduced by
Augustus, in A.D. 6; but it is probably older (Plin.
Paneg.
42, and Hirschfeld,
Untersuchungen, p. 62; also
VOCONIA LEX); or was at
least tried by the triumvirs in B.C. 40 (
App. BC
5.67). It was of course unpopular (
D. C.
56.28). Caracalla, in granting the Roman citizenship to all
subjects of the Empire, a step which would of itself make the tax far more
productive, also doubled the amount; but Macrinus brought it back to 5 per
cent. (Id. 67.9, 68.12; Hist. Aug.
Heliog. 12). It had
disappeared altogether before Justinian (Cod.
Just.
6,
33,
3). We do
not know whether it had to be paid by citizens on property situated in the
provinces. The tax was farmed out to
publicani,
and afterwards managed by
procuratores Augusti vicesimae
hereditatium; a statio hereditatium occurs in inscriptions
[
STATIONES FISCI].
(O. Hirschfeld,
Untersuchungen aus dem Gebiete der römischen
Verwaltungsgeshichte, 1876.)
[
F.T.R]
