Augustus: The Life and Times of the Founder of the Roman Empire

by Evelyn S. Shuckburgh

CHAPTER XIV
THE LAST DAYS

Let the sound of those he fought for,

And the feet of those he wrought for,

Echo round his bones for evermore.

The activities of the last years of Augustus, A.D. 8-14.

The public and private troubles mentioned in the last chapter did not break the spirit or paralyse the energies of the aged Emperor, or prevent him from taking a strenuous part in the administration of the Empire. The last eight years of his life were full of stir and movement, though our meagre authorities give us few details. He actively supported the campaigns of Tiberius and Germanicus; he was introducing reforms in Gaul;[311] he was pushing on improvements in the East, and founding a series of colonies in Pisidia as a defence against the predatory mountain tribes; he was directing a census of the whole Empire; he was emending his marriage laws by the farther enactments contained in the lex Papia Poppæa, which he supported by energetic speeches; he was elaborating a great financial scheme; he was personally attending to the embankment of the Tiber; he was reforming the city police and fire brigades; and when the Varian disaster occurred we have seen with what energy he acted, how he enforced the law of military service and despatched reinforcements to the Rhine, while he cleared the city of dangerous elements and provided against possible movements in the provinces. Though now seventy-two years old he shewed no sign of senility in heart; and as it was said that at every stage of his life he had the beauty appropriate to it, so in spirit, courage, and prudence he seems always to have answered to any strain to which he was submitted.

Financial measures of Augustus.

To understand the financial changes of these years it is necessary to recall a few broad facts as to the revenue of the Empire. It arose from (1) Italy, (2) the provinces. In Italy the sources of revenue were the customs (portoria), the rent of public land, the vicesima or 5 per cent. on the value of manumitted slaves. From the time that it became the habit to pay the soldiers, a tributum or property tax had been raised, at first as a temporary measure, or even as a loan, but gradually as a regular thing. Since the Macedonian wars, however, B.C. 167, this tributum had not been levied: the additional wealth acquired by the new conquests being sufficient. It does not appear that the tributum was abolished by law, and indeed for a short time it was reimposed by the Triumvirs, though only as an extraordinary tax (temerarium). After the Social war of B.C. 89 the Italians became full citizens and shared this exemption.

The second and most important source of revenue were the provinces. There were royalties on mines, customs, rent of public land, and other sources of profit to the government; but also every province paid a stipendium—a certain sum of money—to the Roman treasury. The manner in which it was paid—whether in money or produce, or a mixture of the two—differed in different provinces, as also did the mode of its assessment and collection; but the broad fact was that each province had to furnish a sum of money, and that owners of property in a province were liable to a tributum or tax.[312]

In the time of Augustus there was no great change made in the nature or incidence of this taxation; but the management of the treasury itself was revolutionised. In the first place, the ærarium instead of being under the care of the yearly elected quæstors, who issued money on the order of Senate or magistrates, was put under præfecti appointed by the Emperor, and though the Senate still had a nominal control over it, it was really under his power. In the next place, a new ærarium was formed, afterwards called the fiscus, into which was paid the revenues of the imperial provinces. This was entirely under the Emperor, and the tendency was in time to have every extraordinary revenue, such as confiscations, lapsed legacies (caduca), and the like, paid into it. Besides this there was the patrimonium Cæsarum, the private property of the Emperor in virtue of his office. To this belonged the whole revenues of Egypt and the Thracian Chersonese, and other large estates. When Augustus talks of his having supplemented the treasury or made distributions to the people, it is often from this fund that he drew, though he had besides large personal property (res familiaris), which he employed at times for the same purpose.