[133] Deloume op. cit. pp. 119 ff. Polybius (vi. 17) has been quoted as an authority for the distinction between these two classes. He says [Greek: oi men gar agorazousi para ton timaeton autoi tas ekdoseis, oi de koinonousi toutois, oi d' enguontai tous aegorakotas, oi de tas ousias didoasi peri touton eis to daemosion.] The first three classes are the mancipes, socii and praedes. In the fourth the shareholders (participes or perhaps adfines, cf. Liv. xliii. 16) are found by Deloume (p. 120); but the identification is very uncertain. The words may denote either real as opposed to formal security or the final payment of the vectigal into the treasury. A better evidence for the distinction between socii and shareholders is found in the Pseudo-Asconius (in Cic. in Verr. p. 197 Or.) Aliud enim socius, Aliud particeps qui certam habet partem et non _in_divise agit ut socius. The magnas partes (Cic. pro Rab. Post. 2. 4) and the particulam (Val. Max. vi. 9. 7) of a publicum, need only denote large or small shares held by the socii. Dare partes (Cic. l.c.) is to "allot shares," but not necessarily to outside members. Apart from the testimony of the Pseudo-Asconius and the mention of adfines in Livy the evidence for the ordinary shareholder is slight but by no means fatal to his existence.
[134] E.g. by loan to a socius at a rate of interest dependent on his returns, perhaps with a pactum de non petendo in certain contingencies.
[135] These are, in strict legal language, the true publicani; the lessees of state property are publicanorum loco (Dig. 39. 4, 12 and 13).
[136] Later legal theory assimilated the third with the first class. Gaius says (ii. 7) In eo (provinciali) solo dominium populi Romani est vel Caesaris, nos autem possessionem tantum vel usumfructum habere videmur. But the theory is not ancient-perhaps not older than the Gracchan period. See Greenidge Roman Public Life p. 320. From a broad standpoint the first and second classes may be assimilated, since the payment of harbour dues (portoria) is based on the idea of the use of public ground by a private occupant.
[137] Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 31. 84.
[138] Thédenat in Daremberg-Saglio Dict. des Antiq. s.v. Ergastulum.
[139] Compare Cunningham Western Civilisation in its Economic Aspects vol. i. p. 162.
[140] Cic. in Verr. ii. 55. 137; iii. 33. 77; ii. 13. 32; 26. 63.
[141] Ibid. ii. 13. 32.
[142] Liv. xxv. 3.