Aerarium

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Aerarium

Aerarium (from Latin "aes", in its derived sense of "money") was the name (in full, "aerarium stabulum" - treasure-house) given in Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
to the public treasury

Treasury

A treasury is any place where the currency or items of high monetary value are kept. The term was first used in Classical antiquity times to describe the votive buildings erected to house Sacrifice, such as the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi or many similar buildings erected in Olympia, Greece by competing city-states to impress others during t...
, and in a secondary sense to the public finances.

The treasury contained the monies and accounts of the state finances

Roman finance

For centuries the monetary affairs of the Roman Republic had rested in the hands of the Roman Senate. These elite liked to present themselves as steady and fiscally conservative, but as the 19th-century historian of Rome Wilhelm Ihne remarked:...
. It also held the standards of the legion

Roman legion

The Roman Legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire....
s; the public laws engraved on brass, the decrees of the Senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government....
and other papers and registers of importance.

These public treasures were deposited in the temple of Saturn

Temple of Saturn

The Temple of Saturn is a monument to the Roman mythology Saturn that stands at the western end of the Forum Romanum in Rome. It represents the oldest surviving structure in that area, having been established between 501 BC and 498 BC....
at the Forum Romanum, on the eastern slope of the Capitoline Hill

Capitoline Hill

The Capitoline Hill , between the Roman Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome of Rome. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Campidoglio in the Romanesco....
.

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Aerarium (from Latin "aes", in its derived sense of "money") was the name (in full, "aerarium stabulum" - treasure-house) given in Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
to the public treasury

Treasury

Roman finance

Roman legion

Roman Senate

Temple of Saturn

Capitoline Hill

The Capitoline Hill , between the Roman Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome of Rome. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Campidoglio in the Romanesco....
. During the republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
, they were in the charge of the urban quaestor

Quaestor

Quaestor is a type of public official.In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official who supervised the treasury and financial affairs of the state, its armies and its officers....
s, under the supervision and control of the Senate.

This arrangement continued (except for the year 43 BC, when no quaestors were chosen) until 28 BC, when Augustus transferred the aerarium to two praefecti aerarii, chosen annually by the Senate from ex-praetor

Praetor

Praetor was a Title#Titles_for_heads_of_state granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, either before it was mustered or more typically in the field, or an elected Magistratus assigned duties that varied depending on the historical period....
s. In 23

Year 23 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar....
these were replaced by two praetors (praetores aerarii or ad aerarium), selected by lot during their term of office. Claudius

Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, AD 41 to his death in AD 54....
in 44

Year 44 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar....
restored the quaestors, but had them nominated by the emperor for three years. In 56

Year 56 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar....
, Nero

Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
substituted two ex-praetors selected under the same conditions.

In addition to the common treasury, supported by the general taxes and charged with the ordinary expenditure, there was a special reserve fund, also in the temple of Saturn, the aerarium's sanctum (or sanctius). This fund probably originally consisted of the spoils of war

Spoils of War

Bot?n de guerra is a 2000 in film Argentina documentary film directed and written by David Blaustein with Luis Alberto Asurey. The film premiered on 11 April 2000 in Buenos Aires ....
. Afterwards it was maintained chiefly by a 5% tax on the value of all manumitted slaves. This source of revenue was established by a lex Manila in 357

357

Events...
. This fund was not to be touched except in cases of extreme necessity.

Under the emperors, the Senate continued to have at least the nominal management of the aerarium, while the emperor had a separate exchequer, called fiscus

Fiscus

Fiscus was the name of the personal treasury of the emperors of Rome. The word is literally translated as "basket" or "purse" and was used to describe those forms of revenue collected from the provinces , which were then granted to the emperor....
. However, after a time, as the power of the emperors increased and their jurisdiction extended until the Senate existed only in form and name, this distinction virtually ceased.

Besides creating the fiscus, Augustus also established in AD 6

Year 6 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar....
a military treasury (aerarium militare), containing all monies raised for and appropriated to the maintenance of the army, including a pension fund

Pension fund

A pension fund is a pool of assets forming an independent legal entity that are bought with the contributions to a pension plan for the exclusive purpose of financing pension plan benefits....
for disabled soldiers. It was largely endowed by the emperor himself and supported by the proceeds of the tax on public sales and the succession duty. Its administration was in the hands of three praefecti aerarii militaris. At first these were appointed by lot, but afterwards by the emperor, from senators of praetorian rank, for three years. The later emperors had a separate aerarium privatum, containing the monies allotted for their own use, distinct from the fiscus, which they administered in the interests of the empire.

The tribuni aerarii

Aerarii

Aerarii was a class of Ancient Rome citizens not included in the thirty tribes of Servius Tullius, and subject to a poll-tax arbitrarily fixed by the censor....
have been the subject of much discussion. They are supposed by some to be identical with the curatores tribuum, and to have been the officials who, under the Servian organization, levied the war-tax (tributum

Tribute

A tribute is wealth one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance....
) in the tribes and the poll-tax on the aerarii. They also acted as paymasters of the equites and of the soldiers on service in each tribe. By the lex Amelia (70 BC) the list of judices was composed, in addition to senators and equites, of tribuni aerarii. Whether these were the successors of the above, or a new order closely connected with the equites, or even the same as the latter, is uncertain.

According to Mommsen

Theodor Mommsen

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a Germany classics, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century....
, they were persons who possessed the equestrian census, but no public horse. They were removed from the list of judices by Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, but replaced by Augustus. According to Madvig

Johan Nicolai Madvig

Johan Nicolai Madvig , was a Denmark philologist and Kultus Minister of Denmark.He was born on the island of Bornholm. He was educated at the classical school of Frederiksborg and the University of Copenhagen....
, the original tribuni aerarii were not officials at all, but private individuals of considerable means, quite distinct from the curatores tribuum, who undertook certain financial work connected with their own tribes. Then, as in the case of the equites, the term was subsequently extended to include all those who possessed the property qualification that would have entitled them to serve as tribuni aerarii.

External links

(article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)