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AERARIUM.
ments are confirmed by the Scholiasta Cruquius on Horace (Epist. i. 6. 62) and by Gellius (xvi. 13). If we strictly keep to what we there learn, we cannot adopt the opinion that the aerarians consisted of artizans and freedmen (Niebuhr, Hist, of Rome, vol. i. p. 472), for some artizans had a very honourable position in the Servian constitution ; but thfre were certain occupations, especially those of retail dealers (caupones, KcforTjAoi), which were thought degrading, and which were carried on generally by isopolites, who took up their abode at Rome, and the number of this class of persons (municipes or elves sine suffiragio) may have been very great. These people we conceive to have been the aerarii, not, indeed, on account of their occupation, but because they were citizens who did not enjoy the suffrage. Hence the Caerites were probably the first body of aerarians ; and any Roman citizen guilty of a crime punishable by the censors, might be degraded to the rank of an aerarian; so that his civic rights were suspended, at least for the time that he was an aerarian. But we cannot suppose that the fact of a Roman citizen engaging in trade brought about such a degradation; for there can be little doubt that the persons constituting the city tribes (tribus urbanae) were more or less all engaged in trade and commerce. Hence, to remove a man from a country tribe to a city tribe, cannot have been equivalent to making him an aerarian (Cic. pro Cluent. 43), and the latter can have been the case only when he was excluded from all the tribes, or when he belonged to a city tribe; so that moving him from his tribe was equivalent to excluding him from all tribes. Persons who were made infdmes likewise became aerarians, for they lost the jus hononim and the sunragium. (Augustin. de Civ. Dei^ ii. 13 ; Cic. pro Cluent. 42.) The two scholiasts above referred to agree in stating that the aerarians had to pay a tributum pro capite ; and that this tax was considerably higher than that paid by the other citizens, must be inferred from Livy (iv. 24), who states that Aemilius Mamercus was made an aerarian octuplicato censu. They were not allowed to serve in the legions; but as they nevertheless enjoyed the protection of the state, such a high rate of taxation cannot be considered unjust.
It has been asserted that the libertini, as such, belonged to the class of the aerarians ; but this opinion is founded upon a wrong statement of Plutarch (Poplic. 7), that freedmen did not obtain the suffrage till the time of Appius Claudius ; for Dionysius (iv. 22) informs us that Servius Tullius incorporated them with the city tribes. (Comp. Zonaras, vii. 9 j Huschke, Verfassung des Serv. TulL p. 494, &c.; Gb’ttling, Gesc/i. der Rom. Staats- verf. p. 260, &c.; Becker, Handbueh der Rom. Alterth. vol. ii. pp. 183—196.) [L. S.]
AERARII TRIBUNl. [aes equestre ; tribuni.]
AERARIUM (rb ^fjL6ffiov)9 the public treasury at Rome, and hence the public money itself. After the banishment of the kings the temple of Saturn was employed, upon the proposition of Valerius Poplicola, as the place for keeping the public money, and it continued to be so used till the later times of the empire. (Plut. Popl. 12, Quaest. Rom. 42 ; Festus, s. v. Aerarium}.* Be-
* Of this temple three Corinthian pillars with
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AERARIUM.
sides the public money and the accounts connected with its receipts, expenditure, and debtors, various other things were preserved in the treasury ; of these the most important were: — 1. The standards of the legions (Liv. iii. 69, iv. 22, vii. 23). 2. The various laws passed from time to time, engraven on brazen tables (Suet. Caes. 28).
3. The decrees of the senate, which were entered there in books kept for the purpose, though the original documents were preserved in the temple of Ceres under the custody of the aediles. (Joseph. Ant. xiv. 10. § 10 ; Plut. Cat. Mm. 17 ; Cic. de Leg. iii. 4 ; Tac. Ann., iii. 51.) [aediles.]
4. Various other public documents, the reports and despatches of all generals and governors of provinces, the names of all foreign ambassadors that came to Rome [legatus], &c.
The aerarium ~vvas the common treasury of the state, and must be distinguished from the publicum^ which was the treasury of the populus or the patricians. It is mentioned as one of the grievances of the plebeians that the booty gained in war was frequently paid into the publicum (redigitur in publicum), instead of being paid into the aerarium, or distributed among the soldiers (Liv. ii. 42); but since we no longer read, after the time of the decemvirate, of the booty being paid into the publicum, but always into the aerarium, it is supposed by Niebuhr that this was a consequence of the de-cemviral legislation. (Niebuhr, Hist. Rom. vol. ii. notes 386, 954.) Under the republic the aerarium was divided into two parts : the common treasury, in which were deposited the regular taxes [tributum ; vectiga^ia], and from which were taken the sums of money needed for the ordinary expenditure of the state ; and the sacred treasury (aerarium sanctum or sanctius, Liv. xxvii. 10 ; Flor. iv. 2 ; Caes. B. O. i. 14 ; Cic. ad Att. vii. 21), which was never touched except in cases of extreme peril. Both of these treasuries were in the temple of Saturn, but in distinct parts of the temple. The sacred treasury seems to have been first established soon after the capture of Rome by the Gauls, in order that the state might always have money in the treasury to meet the danger which was ever most dreaded by the Romans, — a war with the Gauls. (Appian, B. C. ii. 41.) At first, probably part of the plunder which the Romans gained in their wars with their neighbours was paid into this sacred treasury ; but a regular means for augmenting it was established in b. c. 357 by the Lex Manlia, which enacted that a tax of five per cent, (vicesimd) upon the value of every manumitted slave should be paid into this treasury. As this money was to be preserved, and therefore space was some object, it had, at least at a later time, either to be paid in gold or was kept in the treasury in gold, since Livy speaks of aurum vicesimarium (Liv. vii. 16, xxvii. 10 ; comp. Cic. ad. Att. ii. 16). A portion of the immense wealth obtained by the Romans in their conquests in the East was likewise deposited in the sacred treasury; and though we cannot suppose
the architrave are still extant, standing on the Clivus Capitolinus to the right of a person as cending the hill. It was rebuilt by L. Mtmatius Plancus in the time of Augustus (Suet. Aug. 29 ; Orelli, Inscr. No. 590), and again restored by Sep- timius Severus. (Becker, Handbucli der 1 omis~ clien AHcrthYtmcr, vol. i. p. 315.) ‘ c 4 ‘
