TIRIBU´TUJM
TIRIBU´TUJM as paid by Romans, took two forms.
(1) A charge on special classes of the Roman people. [AERARII; ARS HORDEARIUM.]
(2) An extraordinary source of revenue, opposed to the ordinary
vectigalia. A property-tax, raised when needed, and
chiefly to cover the expenses of war (e. g.
Liv.
6.32). When regular pay was given to the soldiers [
STIPENDIUM], tributum must
have been raised practically every year. It was levied, not upon land held
in
possessio [
AGRARIAE LEGES], but only on property (
res mancipi) held by a full title. If the tithes
upon
possessio were not properly paid, tributum
would be both heavier and more frequent, since money must be found somehow,
and we accordingly find the plebeians complaining at an early time, when
they held little or no
ager publicus, as if
tributum were a burden chiefly upon them (
Liv.
4.60,
5.10). The pressure of it on poor
people was all the more severe because debts incurred since the last census
were not deducted from the valuation of a person's property, so that he had
to pay tributum upon property which was not his own, but which he owed, and
for which he had consequently to pay interest as well. Still, the tax might
be repaid after successful wars (
Liv. 39.7;
Dionys. A. R. 5.47); hence perhaps the
complaints against generals who paid all the booty into the treasury instead
of using it for repayment. The usual amount of the tax (
tributum simplex) was one for every thousand of a man's
fortune (
Liv. 29.15); in B.C. 215 it was doubled
(
tributum duplex,
Liv. 23.31); and in B.C. 184 it was raised to
three in a thousand (
Liv. 39.44). It was raised,
according to the tribes instituted by Servius Tullius, by the
tribuni-aerarii (
Liv.
1.43;
Dionys. A. R. 4.14,
15, and see Index), and was therefore not,
like other branches of the revenue, let out to farm. It rested originally
with the senate to appoint (
indicere) when the
tax should be levied, and to what amount. If, however, Livy (
5.12) can be trusted, the people could, with the
aid of
tribuni plebis, withhold payment. Later,
the censors are found fixing the amount (B.C. 184;
Liv.
39.44). No citizen was legally exempt; the attempt of the augurs
and pontiffs to claim exemption in B.C. 196 came to nothing (
Liv. 33.42). Occasionally, on emergency, the
tributum was not raised according to the census, but got in as best it could
be, and it was then known as
tributum
temerarium (Festus, s. v.
Tributorum
Collationem). Examples would be the collection of B.C. 387 and
that of 210 (
Liv. 26.35) repaid in 204 (
Liv. 29.16). After the successful Third Macedonian
War, tributum ceased
de facto to be levied on
Roman citizens ( “unius imperatoris praeda finem attulit tributorum,”
Cic. de Off. 2.2. 2, 76; cf.
V. Max. 4.3,
8, and
Plin. Nat. 33.56),
although it might at any time have been re-imposed (Cic.
pro Flacco, 32, 80). This state of things lasted till B.C.
43, when in the crisis of the civil wars a similar tax was again levied
(
Plut. Aem. 38). There has been great
discussion as to whether this was a revival of tributum; but probably Dr.
Merivale (
History of the Romans under the Empire, 100.25) is
right in saying that it was only “extraordinary contributions”
(cf. Willems,
Senat, 2.359; Marquardt,
Staatsverwaltung, 2.172). It could at most only be a
tributum temerarium. Mommsen, however
(
Staatsrecht, 3.229), maintains that the ordinary
tributum was revived in B.C. 43. Whether tributum was raised after this
date, there is no distinct proof, but it is unlikely, as the government of
the emperors did its best to keep the Roman population free from taxes. The
taxes imposed in Italy by Maximianus should rather be classed with the
provincial tribute than with the old Roman tributum.
For the tribute of the provincials, see
VECTIGALIA
[
F.T.R]
