IMPERIAL FREEDMEN

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Freedmen in the Early Roman Empire BY A. M. DUFF, M.A., B.LITT. Sometime Scholar of Oriel College, Oxford; Assistant Lecturer in Greek, University of Aberdeen OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1928

IMPERIAL FREEDMEN I. Minute sub-division of labour best exemplified in the imperial household -- officials concerned with dress -- with furniture and plate -- with the Emperor's table -- the imperial chamberlain -- the procurator castrensis -- the libertus a mandatis -- actors and concubines. II. How freedmen came to be employed in powerful offices -- origin of the great secretariates -- the a rationibus -- the a libellis -- the ab epistulis -the a studiis and a cognitionibus -- opportunities open to the holders of these posts -- their transference to the knights -- subordinate officials in these bureaux. III. Treasuries at Rome -- freedmen in the collection of direct taxes -in that of indirect taxes -- in imperial domains -- in the administration of miscellaneous sources of revenue. IV. High positions which were closed to freedmen -- the procurator aquarum -- freedmen in the administration of the corn-supply -- in charge of the mint -- of the post -- of libraries -- of imperial shows -- of Caesar's journal -- the a copiis militaribus -- all these departments in touch with the general and financial secretariates -- clerks and accountants in the above bureaux. V. The praefectus classis -- exceptional positions given to freedmen. VI. Power and wealth of imperial freedmen -- freedmen under Augustus and Tiberius -- their saturnalia under Gaius, Claudius and Nero -freedmen in the year of revolution -- under the Flavians -- their ascendancy destroyed in the second century -- luxury and ostentation of imperial freedmen -- perils besetting their careers -- the life of the father of Claudius Etruscus -- the good government of the Roman world.

WE now come to the freedmen concerning whom we have most information, those of the imperial household. Exercising a political influence hardly surpassed by senators themselves, the freedmen of emperors figure prominently in the histories of Tacitus and Suetonius; holding the keys of princely favour they receive flattering addresses from Seneca, Statius and Martial; rising to considerable wealth, they have left us ample inscriptions from which we can trace their career.

In the first place, a glance may be taken at the subordinate freedmen of the imperial household; for it is here that the absurdly minute division of labour in Roman society is best exemplified. It has already been noted how in aristocratic houses there were vast arrays of servants, whose duties must have been exceedingly light. A private barber presumably would spend ten minutes on shaving his master and the rest of the day would be his own. He might indeed from time to time be employed in cutting the hair of his master's freedmen, but on the whole he must have done a ridiculously small amount of work for his daily bread. In the imperial palaces examples of idle freedmen are even more striking. For instance, there was one freedman whose sole duty was to look after the white robe that the Emperor wore in triumphal processions. To the care of other individual freedmen were entrusted his military costume, his dress for occasions of royal state, his hunting attire and the clothes he wore at the theatre. 1 Another's duty was to supervise the purchase and keeping of the brooches used in the palace, while another had similar charge of the scents.

While these servants were enjoying their easy positions, a bureau administered the purchase of clothing for the whole household. In view of the vast numbers of the prince's servants and dependants, this bureau's sphere of control was a very wide one. But it was doubtless amply staffed. One of its officials is met with among the imperial freedmen under the title of assistant accountant in the clothing bureau.

Another large and well-staffed bureau was that of the imperial treasures. Its director was a freedman. Under it were those who had charge of Caesar's furniture. To one freedman is entrusted the furniture of the Golden House; another's sphere of service is narrowed down to the chairs of the palace. Similar sub-division of labour is witnessed in the case of the imperial plate. The collections of gold dishes, of gold cups and of silver goblets have each their individual keeper. To another are entrusted gold ornaments embedded with precious stones, while vessels of glass are put under yet another servant.

The Emperor's table demanded a similar throng of attendants and officials. The supreme charge of his dining-room was committed to a tricliniarchus, who doubtless had a number of servants under him. To another freedman fell the daily round of tasting all foods before they reached his master's mouth. The purchase of wines for the imperial board was put under a special procurator, but side by side with him was another freedman who had to see that the wine required for each meal was duly placed on the table.

The friends of the Emperor, a select body of senators and knights who lived at court, probably brought their own servants to dance attendance upon them. But an imperial freedman was appointed in addition, to see that they had everything due to them and to make known any requests or orders to the palace official whom it concerned.

The most prominent and influential of the Emperor's purely domestic servants were the chamberlains. Often a man's chance of being admitted to the Emperor's morning levée depended upon them or upon the liberti ab admissione who were probably their subordinates. They were even able to sell their reports of the Emperor's mood.

They could for their own ends circulate rumours of secrets that their master had confided to them. A special term, 'smoke' (fumus), came to be used of these reports. Among the dishonest ways of earning a living in Rome, Martial mentions the sale of 'empty smoke about the palace'. So too Antoninus Pius is said to have taken precautions that his freedmen might make no profit through 'smoke'.

If we except the case of Helicon under Caligula, the office of chamberlain does not seem to have extended beyond its normal sphere until the reign of Domitian. Before that time the power of imperial freedmen depended on whether they held a governmental office, and the purely domestic servants of the Emperor never exercised any social or political influence. Why Parthenius and Sigerus, the chamberlains of Domitian, became important personages is difficult to see. Probably the answer goes no deeper than the individual characters of the freedmen concerned. The great freedmen of Claudius and Nero-Narcissus and Epaphroditus and others who enjoyed full power in virtue of their secretariates--in all likelihood took due precautions that no upstart chamberlain gained their masters' ear. But Abascantus and the father of Etruscus, Domitian's secretaries, were perhaps more conscientious, devoting their energies to their imperial business and not to the jealous limitation of the chamberlains' influence. At the same time the character of chamberlains may have undergone a change. Those who served Claudius and Nero in this capacity may have been honest or timid men who scrupled to rise by dishonourable means or who feared the dangers of power at court. Parthenius and Sigerus, on the other hand, were probably men of soaring ambition, able to win the favour of their prince and determined to override every obstacle that barred their ascent. Whatever the reason, it is not from the annals of the reigns of Claudius and Nero, but from the epigrams of Martial contemporaneous with Domitian that we obtain our picture of the chamberlain's importance. Just as nobles and princes cringed to Bontemps, the valet of Louis XIV, so senators and knights anxious for offices in the civil service besought the chamberlain with bribes and compliments to put in a good word for them with the Emperor. Poets and men of letters, covetous of imperial patronage, courted him with fulsome adulation and would spend their last sesterce to obtain his mediation. Martial addresses three flattering epigrams to Parthenius. In the first he congratulates him on his child's fifth birthday, in a second he begs him to recommend his epigrams to his master, and in a third he bestows extravagant praises on a toga Parthenius has given him, ending with the hint that a cloak to match would not come amiss. Throughout most of the second century, however, the chamberlains, and indeed freedmen in general, were held in check by strong and vigilant rulers. But under Commodus their power became as scandalous as in the worst days of the first century. The chamberlain, Cleander, gave away or sold seats in the Senate, military commands, procuratorships and governorships to whom he would. It is said that in one year he appointed twenty-five consuls!

One or two other domestic or quasi-domestic offices deserve to be mentioned, not because they became politically important, but because they illustrate a slightly different charge that might be entrusted to imperial freedmen. A servant of the Emperor might be engaged to superintend the imperial baths or the storehouses. Another would be the caretaker of some past emperor's mausoleum, or the head-gardener in Caesar's parks.

Over all imperial property in Rome was set a procurator castrensis, who was ultimately responsible for the adminis tration of the palaces and grounds and for the judicious employment of the funds set apart for that purpose. His office somewhat resembled that of the early Mayors of the Palace in Merovingian times, though the latter acquired a political ascendancy which never fell to the lot of the procuratores castrenses.

One other question presents itself before we leave the Emperor's domestic staff. Supposing Caesar wished to give an order in his own palace, how could he distinguish among all his multitudinous slaves and freedmen which was the proper official? This difficulty was solved by the creation of yet another post in the palace. A special freedman, libertus a mandatis, 2 was appointed, whose duty it was to take the orders of Caesar to the heads of the departments they affected. Probably there were a number of these; one for orders concerning the palace, another for orders to be sent to the secretaries of state; one for patrimonial, another for fiscal matters, and so on.

Apart from the chamberlains and the freedmen in the civil service, the only imperial ex-slaves whose names are at all important in history were the actors and concubines. Both these classes of imperial servants have been mentioned before. From time to time actors won the Emperor's graces by their talents or their good looks and became influential personages at court. Mnester, for instance, became the lover of Messallina; and, when that bad eminence involved him in her downfall, he defended himself on the ground that the intrigue had been forced upon him. This defence would have persuaded Claudius to excuse him, had not the Emperor's omnipotent freedmen refused to consider it. At one time Nero was under the influence of Paris, who, though a freedman of his aunt Domitia, may yet be counted an imperial freedman. This companion in his debaucheries so enchanted Nero that in defiance of the legal rights of Domitia he gave him the privilege of free birth, only to execute him later in his reign. Court actors in the second century are known to have won the favour of the Emperor and the public, though the princes of this age saw to it that they attained no excessive social importance.

More powerful than the actors were the concubines of the Emperor. Even the great Narcissus had recourse to two of Claudius' mistresses in compassing the doom of Messallina. Nero's passion for his freedwoman, Acte, all but made her his lawful wife. Consuls were ready, after being bribed by the Emperor, to attest on oath her royal descent from Pergamene kings. Even a strong ruler like Vespasian was so much under the sway of Caenis that she was able to sell positions as governor or procurator, military commands, priesthoods and the legal decisions of the Emperor to the highest bidder. Popular gossip ran that Vespasian himself connived at it; for the sale of offices replenished the state-coffers which had been almost emptied by the licentious extravagances of past reigns. Antoninus, a stern disciplinarian with his freedmen, was known to be influenced by a concubine; rumour had it that a praetorian prefect owed his position to her.

The greatest freedmen, however, founded their power on their position in the imperial civil service. One or two general considerations are necessary to show how freedmen came to be employed in such responsible posts. It is well known what efforts Augustus made to limit or to disguise the monarchy, how he posed not as the ruler but as the foremost citizen of Rome, and how he divided or pretended to divide the government between the Senate and himself, the permanent proconsul with tribunician power. The Empire was regarded as the joint rule of a body of ex-magistrates and of a pre-eminent but not sovereign individual. This theory of the Principate demanded that, while the senatorial sphere of administration should continue on Republican lines, the whole of the imperial sphere should be entrusted to Caesar and his personal servants. Naturally this preposterous corollary could not be obeyed in its entirety. Senators might resent serving Caesar instead of the state; but they would far more fiercely resent the placing of slaves and freedmen in command of legions and provinces. Augustus, therefore, had recourse to other logic. Under the Republic each proconsul had legati or lieutenants on his staff, and from 55 B. C. to the Civil War Pompey, while resident in Rome, had been governor of Spain, which province he administered through his lieutenants. Thus a precedent was found to justify Augustus in governing his many provinces through senators, who as friends rather than as servants administered them under the title of legati Augusti pro praetore. Similarly, a senator with Republican sympathies might be pacified when taking the command of a legion. Though Augustus was the commander-in-chief of the army, the legionary lieutenant was nominally not his subordinate but his representative.

Such fine distinctions were not likely to deceive the matter-of-fact Republican into thinking that the case was anything other than it was; but they pleased the logical mind of Augustus, and he liked to believe he was only remodelling the Republic and not laying the foundations of a monarchy. However, in several parts of the administration, an office was so closely attached to his own person or was one in which he himself was bound to be so constantly interfering, that he was convinced no senator could with propriety be asked to undertake it. Financial posts in the imperial sphere, the direction of the cornsupply, the command of the praetorians, the fire-brigade, Egypt and third-class provinces were branches of national service which he was anxious to control as directly as possible himself, and from which accordingly he excluded his senator-peers. To secure for himself the most effective control he must needs have performed these duties through slaves and freedmen. Yet positions of this kind carried with them such political importance that most of them could be given to none but free-born citizens. At the same time it was the ambition of Augustus to found a civil service upon the moneyed aristocracy, the ordo equester. Accordingly the greatest of these offices--Egypt, the praetorians, the annona and small provinces like Raetia and Noricum--were all entrusted to knights. Financial posts--the procuratorships of provinces, of certain indirect taxes, of various imperial domains--were divided between knights and freedmen.

But secretarial work at Rome was even more closely attached to Caesar's person. It could only be entrusted to his private servants. Even if knights could become the agents of the Emperor, they could not perform the work of his private secretaries. The sorting of petitions to Caesar and the management of his correspondence were naturally for his slaves and freedmen to perform. Money entrusted to the Emperor but belonging to the state could, in Rome at least, be administered only alongside of his private fortune; these two classes of money were in close relation, and the latter may have often subsidized the former. Augustus therefore found it most convenient to manage both through his personal servants. Thus all the spheres of secretarial work which were afterwards known as the bureaux a libellis, ab epistulis and a rationibus were from the first committed to freedmen and slaves of the Emperor.

Yet in the reign of Augustus freedmen never, as in later times, commanded great centralized bureaux. That prince had no thought of allowing such excessive power to his freedmen. He aimed at personally directing the work involved and at preventing any abuses on his freedmen's part. But in the following reigns congestion of business, the retirement of Tiberius to Capri, and most of all the incompetence of Gaius and the eccentricities of Claudius, threw more responsibilities on the freedmen; and the idea of Augustus that princes could control their secretarial staff was seen to be nothing but a fond dream when less able men than himself succeeded to his throne.

Such was the origin of the three great offices which under Claudius were held by that infamous and omnipotent triumvirate, Narcissus, Pallas and Callistus. It is uncertain when the posts took official shape. The libertus a rationibus, financial secretary to the Emperor, is known as early as Tiberius' reign, though the fiscus, which this office controlled, had probably existed previously. The title acceptor a subscriptionibus, also Tiberian in date, corresponds to the later and better known one of libertus a libellis, secretary for petitions and grievances. The department of the general secretary of state, libertus ab epistulis, was officially established at the latest in the reign of Claudius, under whom Narcissus held the position.

Other secretariates of political or social importance followed quickly in the trail of the three great offices. The libertus a studiis, chief librarian and literary adviser to the Emperor, probably originated in the time of Claudius. The libertus a cognitionibus, Caesar's legal secretary, must also have been created under that indefatigable hearer of cases, Claudius. Indeed, in the Apocolocyntosis written shortly after his death, the very term a cognitionibus is used of Claudius himself, when, as a double satire on his mania for hearing cases and his subserviency to his own freedmen, he is finally made the slave and law-clerk of Aeacus' freedman Menander. Another central bureau, that of beneficia or imperial grants, was created by Trajan, but it seems only to have existed under him. Indeed the a commentariis beneficiorum can never have been more than a subordinate of the a libellis.

The three greatest of these offices were of such historical importance that the loci classici for the duties involved in them deserve to be quoted in full. From the poem of Statius addressed to Claudius Etruscus in memory of his father, who was a rationibus under the Flavians, we gather that he was the greatest financial officer of the Empire. He was in charge of the fiscus. Through his hands passed all the revenue from imperial provinces, from most of Caesar's domains, and from those taxes which did not belong to the senatorial or military treasuries. Similarly he controlled the expenditure for the army and navy, for the conveyance of corn, for the establishment and repair of public works, and for the general administration of Rome, Italy and the imperial provinces. But Statius will speak for himself.

And now the light of nobility entered thy loyal home, and with step unchecked exalted fortune passed therein. Now to thee alone is given the governance of our holy ruler's wealth. In thy sole charge are the riches all nations render and the vast world's tribute; the bullion that Hiberia casts up from her mines of gold, the glistening metal of Dalmatian hills; all that is swept in from African harvests or ground on the threshing-floors of sultry Nile or gathered by the diver in Eastern waters; the fatted flocks of Spartan Galaesus, transparent crystal, Massylian oak-wood and the stately Indian tusk. Sole steward, thou art charged with and directest what Boreas and fearsome Eurus and cloudy Auster waft into our coffers. Lighter than thy task would it be to number the forest-leaves or the rain-drops of winter. Thine eyes are on all parts and thy wits are shrewd. With quick brain thou reckonest what sums are demanded by the Roman arms in every clime, by the tribes and the temples, by the deep channels of rivers, by the barriers set against the deep and by the far-flung chain of roads. Thou takest thought what gold must shine on our sovereign's lofty ceilings, what lumps of ore are to be melted in fire and shaped to the likeness of gods, and what metal is to ring aloud stamped by the fire of the Ausonian mint. So thou wast seldom at peace; thy heart was closed to pleasure; thy fare was meagre, and never did draughts of wine dull thy industry!

The department a libellis was of narrower range and less political significance. Nevertheless its director was a man of considerable influence and activity. His duties were somewhat analogous to those of the modern Italian 'Ministero di grazia e giustizia'. The distinction between libellus and epistula has recently been expounded by Professor Wilcken. A libellus was a note delivered into the hands of the person addressed by the author or his representative. The recipient answered it by a subscriptio. He wrote his reply underneath the libellus and handed it to the presenter. An epistula, on the other hand, was sent by the imperial post or carried by a messenger not taken into the writer's confidence, and was answered, if necessary, by another epistula. Now a libellus presented to the Emperor was almost always a petition. Suetonius uses the word for that which naturally conveys a request. 5 When the African coloni appealed to Commo dus against the injustice of the rent-farmers and the peculation of the imperial procurator, their address was called a libellus. It was answered by a sacra subscriptio. Later an epistula was dispatched with instructions based on the subscriptio.

Accordingly through the hands of the a libellis would pass all applications to the Emperor. His concern would be with complaints against the misconduct of imperial officials, claims for the recognition of certain rights, and petitions for offices, priesthoods, citizenship and ius trium liberorum. He examined the libellus, abbreviated it to a brief statement of what was desired and the grounds of such a desire, brought to the Emperor's notice any precedents or other circumstances likely to aid his decision, perhaps conferred with him on the merits of the case, wrote the subscriptio according to the Emperor's commands, obtained his signature and finally handed the libellus with the rubscriptio to the person who presented it.

That this post was an important one is shown by the fact that Seneca, who afterwards satirized the subjection of Claudius to his freedmen, yet thought fit to win the graces of the favourite who had been appointed a libellis. In his flattering letter of consolation to him on the death of his brother, Seneca gives an idea of the nature and importance of the minister's work:

'You must hear so many thousands of men and decide so many petitions. You have to examine such a mass of problems streaming in from the four corners of the world, for the purpose of submitting them in their due order to the judgement of our supreme ruler. You, I repeat, must not weep. To be able to sympathize with the grief of so many, to be able to dry the tears of them who are in peril and who seek to obtain the mercy of our most gracious sovereign, you must dry your own tears.'

In all probability the most confidential and the most responsible minister was the general secretary of state. He had to receive reports and inquiries from all the imperial provinces as well as from Caesar's private estates. Similarly he had to dispatch the Emperor's orders to all parts of the Roman world. If Pliny had lived in the reign of Claudius, most of Book X would have been addressed not to the Emperor, but to the freedman Narcissus. This secretary would control negotiations with client and foreign princes. At the same time it was his duty to know about the capabilities of rising men in the army or civil service. Such was the congestion of business in this ministry that in the second century it was divided into two departments under separate officials, one for the Western half of the Empire where Latin was the official language, and one for the Eastern half where correspondence was carried on in Greek. Statius gives a picturesque idea of the duties that devolve upon Abascantus, secretary of state to Domitian.

'He (Domitian) bent those shoulders to the yoke; he laid upon them a huge burden, a weight that man could scarce support. In the Emperor's house there is no duty so vast. Thy husband's task was to send far and wide into the great spaces of the earth the commands of the imperial successor of Romulus, and his hand was to control the forces which support and the canons which guide our rule o'er the world. For his attention come triumphal missives from the North, and the tidings from winding Euphrates, from the marches round Ister's banks, from the standards of the Rhine, and news of what submission has been made by the earth's uttermost parts, even Thule surrounded by the cadence of a refluent tide. For him is every message whether all our arms are crowned with joyful bays and never a lance darkened by the pennon of dishonour. Again, if our sovereign lord divide his trusty swords, he must make known who has the character to command a company and be a horseman among the foot, who is to lead a cohort, who merits the more eminent rank of illustrious tribune, and who is worthier to dragoon a squadron of horse. Again he must foreknow a thousand chances, whether Nile has flooded his fields or Libya sweated amid Auster's showers!

The libertus a studiis was politically of much less consequence. Intellectual adviser to the Emperor, he directed his notice to rising poets and men of letters. What he lacked in political power he made up for by his influence in the literary and learned world. Ambitious authors courted him; it was their best way of securing the favour of Caesar. Lastly, the a cognitionibus would make enquiries in each judicial case that was brought before the Emperor and would advise him in his decision.

When we consider the nature of these freedmen's duties and the complete absence of responsibility to anyone but Caesar, it is obvious how powerful and influential they could become even under a monarch of average strength and vigilance. But when the Emperor was a weak-willed and unpractical antiquarian or a vain songster whose eyes could be closed to peculation by judicious flattery, they became the omnipotent rulers of the world limited only by each other. The financial secretary could easily play the unjust steward; the minister of petitions could please himself whether to pass on or intercept an application to the Emperor; the secretary of state could make or mar a man's career in the army or civil service; the secretary for legal affairs could sell justice to the highest bidder; and on the favour of the literary adviser depended the author's prospects of obtaining Caesar's patronage.

The infamous use made of these powers by freedmen led to strong protests. Otho and Vitellius courted aristocratic favour by giving to knights some of the chief offices. Vespasian went back to the old system, but, like a true man of business, doubtless kept his underlings well in hand. The precedent, however, had now been set, even though it was by emperors of but a few months' reign each. Under Domitian, a knight, Titinius Capito, was invested with the general secretariate, and Trajan employed an equestrian procurator a rationibus. These cases, indeed, are still the exception rather than the rule. In the reign of Hadrian, however, the greatest blow was struck at the power of imperial freedmen. Far more than any emperor before him did Hadrian give preference to the knights in the departments which freedmen had hitherto dominated without serious equestrian competition. In view of examples noticed above, Spartianus is not quite correct in saying 'He first had Roman knights for his secretary of state and minister of petitions'; yet the fact that the mistake could be made shows at any rate that Hadrian was commonly regarded as the author of an epoch-making reform in the civil service. The three great offices, together with that of the literary adviser, henceforth went to the knights, and only in exceptional cases did freedmen ever fill them again. Alexander, who was secretary of state for Hellenic affairs (ab epistulis Graecis) under M. Aurelius, is an almost solitary instance. The legal secretariate, however, probably remained in the hands of imperial freedmen until the closing decade of the century. The first known equestrian official a cognitionibus belongs to the period of Septimius Severus.

The sweeping change which Hadrian made in the tenure of these offices, as well as the gradual transference of other positions from the hands of freedmen into those of knights, must not be put down entirely to freedmen's misconduct. The decline of the Stoic opposition to the Empire may have induced princes to rely upon the aristocracy even for service whose nature might have been thought more suited to personal attendants. Moreover, among equestrian officials known to us through inscriptions, there are many who bear the gentile names Claudius, Flavius, Ulpius, Aelius etc. Their origin is plain. They are descended from imperial freedmen. When, therefore, Hadrian made his reform he was no doubt at least influenced by the fact that the descendants of Claudius' and Vespasian's freedmen were of equestrian rank, and that it was unreasonable to exclude them from the positions held by their ancestors. So, later on, the grandsons of Trajan's and Hadrian's servants acquired offices which had gained in dignity, if not in importance, through being reserved for free-born knights.

Each of these departments had its under-secretary with a large staff of clerks and accountants. Each staff was recruited from the slaves and freedmen of the Emperor, and the under-secretaries also were nearly always freedmen, even after the general transfer of the headships to the knights. Of course it depended on individual character whether much could be made of these subordinate posts. If the director of a department were both honest and vigilant, his under-secretary would find that he could not make any profit except that brought in by his salary. If the director however were unwary, his subordinate could carry on a vast illicit traffic; whereas, if he were dishonest, his subordinate would sooner or later learn his secret and make him pay a high price for his silence.

In the financial direction of the Empire were several important posts, of which a fair proportion fell to imperial freedmen. There were four distinct treasuries at Rome in the first two centuries of our era. The oldest was the ancient Republican treasury called the aerarium Saturni, which for the greater part of this period was administered by certain senators appointed by Caesar. At first it bore the administrative expenses in senatorial provinces, and supported the cost of the city prefecture and the curatorships of public works, roads, water-supply and Tiber banks. At the outset of the Empire it was maintained by the duty on the sale of slaves, and the direct taxes, and perhaps the portoria, of senatorial provinces. Later it declined in importance, losing to the fiscus both its provincial duties and its provincial revenue. By 200 A.D. it was little more than the municipal chest of Rome, dependent mainly on the fiscus for its support.

A second treasury was the aerarium militare, which was controlled by three senators of praetorian rank and which provided the pensions for discharged soldiers. It was fed by the vicesima hereditatum, a five per cent. legacy duty, and by the centesima rerum venalium, a one per cent. tax on goods sold by auction throughout the Empire.

Two other treasuries were the patrimonium and the fiscus. The former was the private property of the princeps. Very soon it acquired the rank of a state treasury through the great number of legacies left to the emperors. Augustus himself received vast estates by inheritance; Agrippa's bequest of the Thracian Chersonese and Vedius Pollio's of Pausilypum are two prominent examples. The normal revenues of the patrimonium therefore were two, the income from existing estates and the acquisition of fresh bequests. Confiscation also swelled the patrimonium; for, though the more constitutional emperors sent the bona damnatorum to the aerarium or fiscus, others played the high-handed despot and swept them into their private coffers. The expenditure of this chest must always have been considerable and under extravagant emperors enormous. Besides paying its staff and agents in the provinces, it bore the expenses of the Emperor's court, bought his slaves and paid the salaries of his freedmen officials. Moreover the maintenance of the water-supply and the cost of public buildings, so far as these fell to Caesar, were defrayed by the patrimonium.