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AERARIUM (from Lat. aes, in its deriv...

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 259 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AERARIUM (from See also:Lat. aes, in its derived sense of " See also:money ")  , the name (in full, See also:aerarium stabulum, treasure-See also:house) given in See also:ancient See also:Rome to the public See also:treasury, and in a secondary senseto the public finances . The treasury contained the moneys and accounts of the See also:state, and also the See also:standards of the legions; the public See also:laws engraved on See also:brass, the decrees of the See also:senate and other papers and registers of importance . These public treasures were deposited in the See also:temple of See also:Saturn, on the eastern slope of the Capitoline See also:hill, and, during the See also:republic, were in See also:charge of the See also:urban quaestors (see See also:QuAESTOR), under the superintendence and See also:control of the senate . This arrangement continued (except for the See also:year 45 B.C., when no quaestors were chosen) until 28 B.C., when See also:Augustus transferred the aerarium to two praefecti See also:aerarii, chosen annually by the senate from ex-praetors; in 23 these were replaced by two praetors (praetores aerarii or ad aerarium), selected by See also:lot during their See also:term of See also:office; See also:Claudius in A.D . 44 restored the quaestors, but nominated by the See also:emperor for three years, for whom See also:Nero in 56 substituted two ex-praetors, under the same conditions . In addition to the See also:common treasury, supported by the See also:general taxes and charged with the See also:ordinary See also:expenditure, there was a See also:special reserve fund, also in the temple of Saturn, the aerarium''sanctum (or sanctius), probably originally consisting' of the spoils of See also:war, afterwards maintained chiefly by a 5% tax on the value of all manumitted slaves, this source of See also:revenue being established by a lex Manlia in 357 . This fund was not to be touched except in cases of extreme See also:necessity (See also:Livy vii . 16, See also:xxvii. so) . Under the emperors the senate continued to have at least the nominal management of the aerarium, while the emperor had a See also:separate See also:exchequer, called fiscus . But after a See also:time, as the See also:power of the emperors increased and their See also:jurisdiction extended till the senate existed only in See also:form and name, this distinction virtually ceased . Besides creating the fiscus, Augustus also established in A.D . 6 a military treasury (aerarium militare), containing all moneys raised for and appropriated to the See also:maintenance of the See also:army, including a See also:pension fund for disabled soldiers .

It was largely endowed by the emperor himself (see Monumentum Ancyranum, iii . 35) and supported by the proceeds of the tax on public sales and the See also:

succession See also:duty . Its See also:administration was in the hands of three praefecti aerarii militaris, at first appointed by lot, but afterwards by the emperor, from senators of praetorian See also:rank, for three years . The later emperors had a separate aerarium privatum, containing the moneys allotted for their own use, distinct from the fiscus, which they administered in the interests of the See also:empire . The tribuni aerarii 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) in the tribes and the See also:poll-tax on the aerarii (q.v.) . They also acted as paymasters of the See also:equites and of the soldiers on service in each tribe . By the lex See also:Aurelia (70 B.C.) the See also: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 See also:order closely connected with the equites, or even the same as the latter, is uncertain . According to See also:Mommsen, they were persons who possessed the equestrian See also:census, but no public See also:horse . They were removed from the list of judices by See also:Caesar, but replaced by Augustus . According to See also:Madvig, the See also:original tribuni aerarii were not officials at all, but private individuals of considerable means, quite distinct from the curatores tribuum, who undertook certain See also:financial See also:work connected with their own tribes .

Then, as in the See also:

case of the equites, the term was subsequently extended to include all those who possessed the See also:property qualification that would have entitled them to serve. as tribuni aerarii . See See also:Tacitus, See also:Annals, xiii . 29, with See also:Furneaux's notes; O . Hirschfeld, " Das Aerarium militare in der romischen Kaiserzeit," in See also:Fleckeisen's Jahrbuch, vol. xcvii . (1868); S . Herrlich, De Aerario et Fist() Romanorum (See also:Berlin, 1872) ; and the usual handbooks and dictionaries of antiquities . On the tribuni aerarii see E . Belot, Hist. See also:des chevaliers romains, ii. p . 276; J . N . Madvig, Opuscula Academica, ii. p . 242; J .

B . Mispoulet, See also:

Les Institutions politiques des Romains (1883), ii. p . 208; Mommsen, Romisches Staatsrecht, iii. p . 189; A . S . See also:Wilkins in See also:Smith's See also:Dictionary of See also:Greek and See also:Roman Antiquities (3rd ed., 189o) .

End of Article: AERARIUM (from Lat. aes, in its derived sense of " money ")
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