Abstract
Every state needs a central archive to store and preserve all its bureaucratic production. In Rome the aerarium populi Romani was the repository for official documents throughout the republican period. Consequently, it was the place where magistrates, senators and private citizens could look for economic public information, reducing the risk of asymmetric information. The administration of the aerarium was the main duty or provincia of the quaestores urbani. Through their assistants, the urban quaestors acted in Rome as the general accountants of the civitas. One of their most important tasks, therefore, was the supervision of all public income and expenses, thus assuming the role of comptrollers of the Republic. The urban quaestors had to supervise the accounts of all magistrates after they had completed their offices, both in Rome and in the provinces of the Empire. Just as the public income ended up in the aerarium, the money for every payment the state had to make came from the treasury. As a result, it was expected that all expenses were to be controlled and recorded by the urban quaestors. All official documents generated by the Roman republican administration (senate, magistrates, assemblies, courts, etc.) were recorded and kept in the aerarium, and consequently the urban quaestors had to ensure their accuracy and preservation as a sort of public notaries. As a matter of fact, it was indeed the deposit of a document in the aerarium that turned it into a public document. Some of these official documents kept in the aerarium were: senatorial decrees; lists of the allies and friends of the Roman people; lists of the census; perhaps minutes of magistrates; public contracts with private persons; lists of debtors and creditors of the state; certificates of property; lists of citizens with their tax obligations; probably the minutes of the comitia; minutes of trials or legal processes which implied fines to be paid to the state or rewards for informers; and so on.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In this regard, the works and publications of Claude Nicolet (and those inspired by him) have been decisive: Nicolet (1988); Demougin (1994); Moatti (1998, 2011). See now David (2019: 65): “l’élargissement de l’Empire, les nécessités de son administration et la pratique de la codification qui se fit jour donnèrent au document écrit un poids croissant. Il fallait connaître, archiver, classer, retrouver des documents dispersés, hors de portée désormais de la mémoire collective.”
- 2.
Liv. 2.21.2; Plut. Publ. 12.3.
- 3.
This is not the place to develop the discussion on other buildings in which official documents must have been collected and preserved, such as the Tabularium and the Atrium Libertatis. The point is that various different archives existed during the Republic. See Purcell (1993); Tucci (2005); Coarelli (2010).
- 4.
This is attested by a number of Republican legal documents. See for instance the following paragraph from the lex Cornelia de XX quaestoribus: q(uaestorem) urb(anum), quei aerarium provinciam optinebit, eam mercedem deferto, quaestorque quei aerarium provinciam optinebit, eam pequniam ei scribae scribeisque heredive eius solvito, idque ei sine fraude sua facere liceto, quod sine malo pequlatuu fiat, olleisque hominibus eam pequniam capere liceto. (Lex Cornelia de XX quaestoribus ll. 1–6. Crawford 1996: 1.294 and 297: “[−--] he is to register [with] the urban quaestor, who shall have the treasury as his province, that fee, and the quaestor, who shall have the treasury as his province, is to pay that sum to that scribe, or (those) scribes, or to his heir, and it is to be lawful for him to do so without personal liability, in so far as it be done without wrongful enrichment, and it is to be lawful for those persons to accept that sum”). In general, on the tasks performed by the urban quaestors see Mommsen, Röm.St. II 523–541; Kunkel – Wittmann (1995: 515–523); Lintott (1999: 136–137); Muñiz Coello (2014: 512–520), and now Pina Polo – Díaz Fernández (2019: 79–124). On the aerarium in the Imperial period, see Corbier (1974).
- 5.
Tac. ann. 13.28: dein princeps curam tabularum publicarum a quaestoribus ad praefectos transtulit. Cf. Ps.-Ascon. in Verr. 1.11 p.226 St.: Quaestores urbani aerarium curabant, eiusque pecunias expensas et acceptas in tabulas publicas referre consueverant.
- 6.
See Pol. 6.13.2: οὔτε γὰρ εἰς τὰς κατὰ μέρος χρείας οὐδεμίαν ποιεῖν ἔξοδον οἱ ταμίαι δύνανται χωρὶς τῶν τῆς συγκλήτου δογμάτων πλὴν τὴν εἰς τοὺς ὑπάτους (“the quaestors are not authorised to make any expenditure without a decree of the Senate, except for the service of the consuls”). There is no doubt that Polybius is speaking at this point about the urban quaestors, whereas he refers to the consular quaestors in 6.12.8.
- 7.
Pina Polo – Díaz Fernández (2019: 84–97).
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
Gabba (1983: 489); Purcell (2001). On the importance and excessive influence of the scribae working in the aerarium see Plut. Cat.min. 16.2 (cf. David 2019: 63–65 and 224–225). Nonetheless, the scribae were of course subject to controls, and could be brought to trial for fraud. Cf. Plut. Cat.min. 16.3; Cic. Mur. 42: scriba damnatus, ordo totus alienus. On scribes brought to trial see Rosillo-López (2010: 127–131).
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
See Mommsen, Röm.St. II 532–535; Kunkel – Wittmann (1995: 518–521). The scarcity of concrete references to these documents in the ancient sources should be emphasised.
- 14.
A general reference is found in Liv. 39.4.8: …senatus consultum factum ad aerarium detulerit.
- 15.
The existence of that register is proved by Josephus, who quotes a senatorial decree from 44 copied from the treasury, from the tabulae publicae belonging to the urban quaestors of that year, Quintus Rutilius and Gaius Cornelius (Ios. AJ 14.219). Cicero, for his part, accuses Antonius of bringing senatus consulta that had never existed to the aerarium:…senatus consulta numquam facta ad aerarium deferebantur (Cic. Phil. 5.12). Cf. Cic. fam. 12.1.1.
- 16.
Cic. Att. 13.33: …reperiet ex eo libro, in quo sunt senatus consulta Cn. Cornelio, L. Mummio coss.
- 17.
Cf. Sisenna fr. 117 P.: idemque perseveraverunt, uti lex perveniret ad quaestorem ac iudices quos vellent instituerent praefestinatim et cupide.
- 18.
- 19.
Kunkel – Wittmann (1995: 521).
- 20.
S.C. de Asclepiade l.17 (= l. 25 of the Greek text). This list of allies and friends is likewise implied in a text from Livy which refers to 170. An embassy from Lampsacus declared that they had revolted against Perseus as soon as the Roman legions appeared in Macedonia and had given all possible assistance to the Roman commanders. As a reward for their behaviour, they requested the Senate to be included amongst the friends of Rome, and the Senate instructed the praetor Q. Maenius to enrol the Lampsacans among the states allied to Rome: Lampsacenos in sociorum formulam referre Q. Maenius praetor iussus (Liv. 43.6.10).
- 21.
Kunkel – Wittmann (1995: 518).
- 22.
Mommsen, Röm.St. II 533.
- 23.
Cic. Pis. 15.
- 24.
Pina Polo – Díaz Fernández (2019: 95–97).
- 25.
Trisciuoglio (1998: 102). Cf. Mommsen, Röm.St. II 541.
- 26.
Pina Polo – Díaz Fernández (2019: 91–94).
- 27.
Tributes brought by an embassy to Rome were also given to the urban quaestors for the aerarium, for example the stipendium of Antiochus brought by the leader of the envoys of the king, Apollonius: quaestores urbani stipendium, vasa aurea censores acceperunt… (Liv. 42.6.11).
- 28.
Let us take as an example Verres’ accountability after his quaestorship. Verres was quaestor in 84 and proquaestor probably in 83–82. After his return to Rome, he was obliged to present his accounts (rationes ) in detail to the urban quaestors. Cicero reproduces the heading of Verres’ report: “Accounts related to the urban quaestors P. Lentulus and L. Triarius.” (Cic. Verr. 2.1.37: P. Lentulo L. Triario quaestoribus urbanis res rationum relatarum). Lentulus Sura and Triarius were the urban quaestors in 81.
- 29.
- 30.
Cf. Cic. Pis. 25: Ita enim sunt perscriptae scite et litterate ut scriba ad aerarium qui eas rettulit perscriptis rationibus secum ipse caput sinistra manu perfricans commurmuratus sit…
- 31.
According to Callistratus, a Roman jurist of second-third century AD, the accountability followed several stages: a review of the documentation (legendas rationes); a supervision of the calculations (computandas rationes) as well as a delivery of the remains (reliqua solvere); and finally an approval and closure of the accounts (subscribere rationes) (Dig. 35.1.82). These stages may also have existed during the Republic. See Rosillo-López (2010: 112 n.176).
- 32.
The quaestor P. Albius had to present his accounts in the trial against his superior, Q. Mucius Scaevola Augur, for the maladministration of the latter in the province of Asia, ca. 120–119 (Cic. de orat. 2.281); see Alexander (1990), no. 32. On the importance of these tabulae in trials, cf. also Cic. Scaur. 18; Att. 1.16.4; Val. Max. 2.10.1.
- 33.
Plut. Ti. Gr. 6.1–3.
- 34.
Cic. Verr. 2.1.36: Accepi…viciens ducenta triginta quinque milia quadringentos decem et septem nummos. Dedi stipendio, frumento, legatis, pro quaestore, cohorti praetoriae hs mille sescenta triginta quinque milia quadringentos decem et septem nummos. Reliqui Arimini hs sescenta milia. Cf. Fallu (1979: 102).
- 35.
Cicero reproaches Verres for the excessive conciseness of his accounts, an unmistakable proof of his culpability according to him, and wonders: “Is this the way of presenting accounts?” (Cic. Verr. 2.1.36: Hoc est rationes referre?).
- 36.
See Cic. fam. 5.20.1, where Cicero contrasts the ius vetus et mos antiquus with the new regulations introduced by the Iulian law. Cicero sent this letter to L. Mescinius Rufus, his quaestor in Cilicia. Cf. Venturini (1979: 471–477); Coudry (2009: 58–59); Rosillo-López (2010: 112); Pina Polo – Díaz Fernández (2019, 87–88).
- 37.
Cic. Att. 6.7.2: ego Laodiceae quaestorem Mescinium exspectare iussi, ut confectas rationes lege Iulia apud duas civitates possem relinquere; fam. 2.17.4: Rationes mei quaestoris nec verum fuit me tibi mittere nec tamen erant confectae. Eas nos Apameae deponere cogitabamus.
- 38.
Cic. fam. 5.20.2. It seems that the scribae of the aerarium made themselves one further copy of the accounts, which suggests that the magistrate kept the original in his personal archives. Cf. Rosillo-López (2010: 112).
- 39.
Cic. fam. 5.20.8.
- 40.
- 41.
In a letter written to Caninius Sallustius, Cicero declares categorically that the booty he had been able to acquire during his expedition in Cilicia was to be sent to the urban quaestors, that is, to the Roman people, without anyone else touching it, he says. Cicero adds that in Laodicea he would take all necessary measures to ensure that the public money would reach Rome without problems in its transportation (Cic. fam. 2.17.4: De praeda mea praeter quaestores urbanos, id est populum Romanum, terruncium nec attigit nec tacturus est quisquam. Laodiceae me praedes accepturum arbitror omnis pecuniae publicae, ut et mihi et populo cautum sit sine vecturae periculo).
- 42.
See Churchill (1999: 103): “This document would serve as a concrete record of what the public had already seen (*during the triumph), and would make it possible for those with access to the aerarium to confirm their recollections.” On the accounts of booty, see Coudry (2009: 52–60); Pina Polo – Díaz Fernández (2019, 88–91).
- 43.
For example, Manius Acilius Glabrio was prosecuted because a part of the booty that had apparently been taken from Antiochus’ camp was not exhibited in the procession of triumph and was not brought to the aerarium. See Liv. 37.57.12: …quod pecuniae regiae praedaeque aliquantum captae in Antiochi castris neque in triumpho tulisset, neque in aerarium rettulisset.
- 44.
Cic. Verr. 2.1.57: P. Servilius quae signa atque ornamenta ex urbe hostium vi et virtute capta belli lege atque imperatorio iure sustulit, ea populo Romano adportavit, per triumphum vexit, in tabula publica ad aerarium perscribenda curavit. Cf. Coudry (2009: 53).
- 45.
Cic. Verr. 2.1.57: Non solum numerum signorum, sed etiam unius cuiusque magnitudinem, figuram, statum litteris definiri vides. Cf. Liv. 39.7.1, where a detailed list of what Cn. Manlius Vulso contributed to the treasury on the occasion of his triumph is given: 200 golden crowns, 220.000 pounds of silver, 2103 pounds of gold, and so on. It is obvious that this information comes from the official report delivered by Manlius Vulso.
- 46.
According to Plutarch’s account, when Cato found in the archive that many persons owed debts of long standing to the public treasury and the treasury to many persons, he immediately demanded payment from debtors and made payment to creditors (Plut. Cat.min. 17). Cf. Millar (1964: 35–36).
- 47.
Cic. Flacc. 80: illud quaero sintne ista praedia censui censendo, habeant ius civile, sint necne sint mancipi, subsignari apud aerarium aut apud censorem possint.
- 48.
Plut. Quaest.Rom. 42. Cf. Millar (1964: 35).
- 49.
Plut. Cat.min. 18.5: οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ ἀπαλλαγεὶς τῆς ταμιείας ἀφῆκε τῆς φρουρᾶς ἔρημον τὸ ταμιεῖον, ἀλλ᾽ οἰκέται μὲν αὐτοῦ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἀπογραφόμενοι τὰς διοικήσεις παρῆσαν, αὐτὸς δὲ βιβλία λόγους περιέχοντα δημοσίων οἰκονομιῶν ἀπὸ τῶν Σύλλα χρόνων εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ταμιείαν ὠνησάμενος πέντε ταλάντων ἀεὶ διὰ χειρὸς εἶχεν.
- 50.
The use of copyists was common. For instance, once the tribune of the plebs Rullus presented his agrarian rogatio in December 64, Cicero, who was still a consul designatus, immediately ordered several librarii to transcribe the text of the bill and had it sent to him (Cic. leg.agr. 2.13). On the use of librarii to obtain copies of public documents, see Cic. leg. 3.46, where Cicero shows distrust towards apparitores and librarii .
- 51.
Cic. de orat. 2.116: …ut tabulae, testimonia, pacta conventa, quaestiones, leges, senatus consulta, res iudicatae, decreta, responsa, reliqua, si quae sunt, quae non reperiuntur ab oratore, sed ad oratorem a causa [atque a re] deferuntur. Cf. Pugliese (1964: 308–310).
- 52.
This could perhaps explain the arson of certain archives with the purpose of destroying evidence, something that would indirectly support open access to archives to obtain copies of documents. Cf. Moreau (1994: 141–143).
- 53.
Cic. Verr. 4.149: Ego legem recitare, omnium mihi tabularum et litterarum fieri potestatem.
- 54.
See Roselaar’s article in this volume.
- 55.
Nicolet (1994: 153–155). Nicolet even asserted that “les archives romaines étaient donc exactes.”
- 56.
In a passage from De legibus (leg. 3.46), Cicero refers to copyists who made copies of the texts of laws on request (a librariis petimus). The text once again shows the practice of copying official documents contained in the aerarium for private individuals, although it does not seem realistic to read petimus as an allusion to all Roman citizens; rather, Cicero is thinking exclusively of people like himself, that is of his social class.
- 57.
See Rosillo-López in this volume.
- 58.
Of course the calculations could be wrong, as seems to have occurred in 61 with the publicans of Asia, who claimed from the Senate a relaxation of the conditions of the locatio (remissio mercedum), adducing that they had paid too high a price. See Cic. Att. 1.17.9; Suet. Caes. 20.
- 59.
- 60.
Nicolet (1994: 163), considered that before the lex Iulia of 59 the rationes of a governor had to be sent or brought to Rome, and served as a source of information about the economy of a province.
- 61.
Cf. Cic. Att. 4.11.1: dixit mihi Pompeius Crassum a se in Albano exspectari ante diem IIII Kal.; is cum venisset, Romam (eum) et se statim venturos ut rationes cum publicanis putarent.
- 62.
Nicolet (1994: 164–168). The accounts of the societates publicanorum certainly existed and were deposited where they were acting, as Cicero, who speaks of tabulae publicanorum, shows (Cic. Verr. 2.187). Cicero adds in this context that it was forbidden to bring the accounts to Rome, as they were essential for the Sicilian administration (Moreau 1994: 133), but these accounts do not necessarily coincide with the annual balances.
- 63.
Nicolet (1994: 171).
Bibliography
Alexander, M.C. 1990. Trials in the Late Roman Republic, 149 BC to 50 BC. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Churchill, J.B. 1999. Ex qua quod vellent facerent: Roman Magistrates’ Authority over Praeda and Manubiae. Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 129, 85-116.
Coarelli, F. 2010. Substructio et Tabularium. Papers of the British School at Rome 78: 107–132.
Corbier, M. 1974. L’Aerarium Saturni et l’Aerarium Militare. Administration et prosopographie sénatoriale, Rome: École Française de Rome.
Coudry, M. 2009. Partage et gestion du butin dans la Rome républicaine: procédures et enjeux. In Praeda. Butin de guerre et société dans la Rome républicaine, ed. M. Coudry and M. Humm, 21–79. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Crawford, M.H. (ed.). 1996. Roman Statutes, 2 vols. London: Institute of Classical Studies.
Cuomo, S. 2011. All the Proconsul’s Men: Cicero, Verres and Account-Keeping. In L’insegnamento delle technai nelle culture antiche: atti del convegno, Ercolano, 23–24 marzo 2009 AION, Quaderni 15, ed. A. Roselli and R. Velardi, 165–185.
David, J.-M. 2007. Ce que les Verrines nous apprennent sur les scribes de magistrats à la fin de la République. In La Sicile de Cicéron: lecture des Verrines. Actes du colloque de Paris (19–20 mai 2006), 35–56. Besançon.
———. 2019. Au service de l’honneur. Les appariteurs de magistrats romains, Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Demougin, S. (ed.). 1994. La mémoire perdue. À la recherche des archives oubliées, publiques et privées, de la Rome antique, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne.
Fallu, E. 1979. Les règles de la comptabilité publique à Rome à la fin de la République. In Points de vue sur la fiscalité antique, ed.H. van Effenterre. Paris.
Gabba, E. 1983. Lineamenti di un commento alla Lex Cornelia de XX quaestoribus. Athenaeum 61: 487–493.
Gagliardi, L. 2009. La lex Iunia Licinia e le procedure di pubblicazione e di conservazione delle leges nella Roma tardo-repubblicana. Diritto@Storia 8. www.dirittoestoria.it/8/Tradizione-Romana/Gagliardi-Lex-Iunia-Licinia.htm
Keil, J. 1902. Zur lex Cornelia de viginti quaestoribus. Wiener Sudien 24: 548–551.
Kunkel, W., and R. Wittmann. 1995. Staatsordnung und Staatspraxis der römischen Republik. 2. Die Magistratur. Munich: C.H. Beck.
Lintott, A. 1999. The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford: Clarendon.
Millar, F. 1964. The Aerarium and Its Officials Under the Empire. Journal of Roman Studies 54: 33–40.
Moatti, C., ed. 1998. La mémoire perdue. Recherches sur l’administration romaine, Rome: École Française de Rome.
———. 2011. La mémoire perdue. À la recherche des archives oubliées de l’administration romaine. Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz 22: 123–130.
Mommsen, Th. 1858. Sui modi usati da’ Romani nel conservare e pubblicare le leggi ed i senatusconsulti. In Annali dell’Istituto di corrispondenza archeologica 39, 181–212 = Gesammelte Schriften, Berlin/Dublin/Zurich (1965) (first edition 1907) III, 290–313.
———. 1876–1888. Römisches Staatsrecht, 3 vols. in 5, Leipzig: Hirse.
Moreau, Ph. 1994. La mémoire fragile: falsification et destruction des documents publics au Ier s. av. J.-C. In La mémoire perdue. À la recherche des archives oubliées, publiques et privées, de la Rome antique, ed. C. Nicolet, 121–147. Paris: La Sorbonne.
Muñiz Coello, J. 1982. Empleados y subalternos de la administración romana. I. Los scribae. Huelva: Colegio universitario de la Rabida.
———. 1983. Empleados y subalternos de la administración romana. II. Los praecones. Habis 14: 117–146.
———. 2014. Los cuestores republicanos. Origen, funciones y analogías. Klio 96: 500–536.
Nicolet, C. 1988. L’inventaire du monde. Géographie et politique aux origines de l’Empire romain. Paris: Hachette.
———. 1994. Documents fiscaux et géographie dans la Rome ancienne. In La mémoire perdue. À la recherche des archives oubliées, publiques et privées, de la Rome Antique, ed. C. Nicolet, 149–172. Paris = 2000. Censeurs et publicains. Économie et fiscalité dans la Rome antique, 247–264. Paris: Arthème Fayard.
Pina Polo, F., and A. Díaz Fernández. 2019. The Quaestorship in the Roman Republic. Berlin: Boston De Gruyter.
Pugliese, G. 1964. La preuve dans le procès romain de l’époque classique. In La preuve. 1. L’Antiquité. Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin 16, 277–348. Brussels: Éd. de la Librairie encyclopédique.
Purcell, N. 1983. The apparitores: A Study in Social Mobility. Papers of the British School at Rome 51: 125–173.
———. 1993. Atrium Libertatis. Papers of the British School at Rome 61: 125–155.
———. 2001. The ordo scribarum: a study in the loss of memory. Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Antiquité 113 (2): 633–674.
Rosillo-López, C. 2010. La corruption à la fin de la république romaine (IIe-Ier s. av. J.-C.): aspects politiques et financiers. Stuttgart: Steiner.
Trisciuoglio, A. 1998. Sarta tecta, ultrotributa, opus publicum faciendum locare. Sugli appalti relative alle opere pubbliche nell’età repubblicana e augustea. Napoli.
Tucci, P.L. 2005. Where High Moneta Leads Her Steps Sublime. The ‘Tabularium’ and the Temple of Juno Moneta. Journal of Roman Archaeology 18: 6–33.
Varvaro, M. 1995. Per una interpretazione della Lex de XX quaestoribus. A.S.G.P. 43: 577–588.
Venturini, C. 1979. Studi sul ‘crimen repetundarum’ nell’età repubblicana. Milano: Giuffrè.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Díaz Fernández, A., Pina Polo, F. (2021). Managing Economic Public Information in Rome: The Aerarium as Central Archive of the Roman Republic. In: Rosillo-López, C., García Morcillo, M. (eds) Managing Information in the Roman Economy. Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54100-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54100-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-54099-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-54100-2
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)