SALA´RIUM
SALA´RIUM allowance of salt for soldiers and
officers; then allowance for salt; and so (though not earlier than the
Empire) == stipendium or military pay generally (as in
Plin. Nat. 31.89), though the word still
included rations. (Salt was once more supplied in kind later: see
Hist. Aug., Claud. 14,
Prob. 4.)
Augustus instituted in B.C. 27 a further salarium for governors of provinces,
senatorial or imperial. The outfit and travelling expenses of governors
(
vasarium) had previously been voted them
by the senate. But though the supply of outfit and necessaries, in money or
kind, by no means came to an end, Augustus also paid a fixed money-allowance
or “salary” to provincial governors (
D.
C. 52.23,
53.15;
Suet. Aug. 36). The amounts varied with their
rank (
D. C. 53.15), but are not known to us.
Dio Cassius (78.22) says that in the time of Macrinus a million sesterces
were paid; but the provincial governor here mentioned was never allowed to
visit his province; and the million sesterces may therefore, it has been
thought, have included compensation for the honours and advantages lost, and
consequently may be much more than the regular amount. Salaria were also
given by various emperors to other persons: the
comites of the emperor (
Suet. Tib.
46); legal assessors (
Hist. Aug., Alex. Sev. 46); poor
senators (
Suet. Nero 10); rhetoricians and
philosophers in all the provinces (
Hist. Aug., Ant. Pius, 11;
cf. Suet.
Vesp. 18); grammarians, doctors, haruspices,
engineers, architects (
Hist. Aug., Alex. Sev. 44). The
various curatores and procuratores were divided according to amount of
salary into
sexagenarii (60,000 sesterces),
centenarii (100,000),
ducenarii, and
trecenarii. Respecting
the pay which certain classes of priests received, see
SACERDOS and
VECTIGALIA
TEMPLORUM
[
F.T.R]
