Fiscus, from which comes the English term fiscal

Fiscal

Fiscal usually refers to government finance. In this context, it may refer to:* Fiscal deficit, the budget deficit of a government* Fiscal policy, use of government expenditure to influence economic development...

, 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

Roman province

In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...

 (specifically the imperial province

Imperial province

An imperial province was a Roman province where the Emperor had the sole right to appoint the governor . These provinces were often the strategically located border provinces....

s), which were then granted to the emperor. Its existence pointed to the division of power in the early era of the Empire between the imperial court and the Senate. In subsequent years, as the emperors assumed greater control over the finances of the Roman world, the size of the fiscus was increased.

Juvenal

Juvenal

The Satires are a collection of satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD.Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided among five books; all are in the Roman genre of satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a...

 satirized the entire treasury by writing that a turbot of great size caught in the Adriatic had to be sent to Rome as part of Domitian

Domitian

Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...

's fiscus.

The head of the fiscus in the first years was the rationalis

Rationalis

The rationalis was the Roman Empire's chief financial minister prior to the reforms of Emperor Diocletian and the Late Empire. Among the tasks of the rationalis were the collection of all normal taxes payable in coin and duties, the control of the currency, and the administration of mines, mints,...

, originally a freedman due to Augustus' desire to place the office in the hands of a servant free of the class demands of the traditional society. In succeeding years the corruption and reputation of the freedman forced new and more reliable administrators. From the time of Hadrian

Hadrian

Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...

 (117-138), any rationalis hailed from the Equestrian Order (equites) and remained so through the chaos of the 3rd century and into the age of Diocletian

Diocletian

Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244  – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....

.

See also

• Aerarium
  Aerarium
  Aerarium was the name given in Ancient Rome to the public treasury, and in a secondary sense to the public finances....
  
  
• comes
  Comes
  Comes , plural comites , is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus, especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" +...
  
  
• Congiarium
  Congiarium
  Of Ancient Roman containers, a congiarium, or congiary, was a vessel containing one congius, a measure of volume equal to six sextarii....
  
  
• Fiscus Iudaicus
• rationibus
  Rationibus
  A rationibus was the Roman Empire's secretary of finance, in charge of maintaining the accounts and expenditures of the fiscus which is the imperial treasury. This official's role in the finances of the Early Empire was considerable...
  
  
• rationalis
  Rationalis
  The rationalis was the Roman Empire's chief financial minister prior to the reforms of Emperor Diocletian and the Late Empire. Among the tasks of the rationalis were the collection of all normal taxes payable in coin and duties, the control of the currency, and the administration of mines, mints,...
  
  
• Roman finance
  Roman finance
  For centuries the monetary affairs of the Roman Republic had rested in the hands of the Senate. These elite liked to present themselves as steady and fiscally conservative, but as the 19th-century historian of Rome Wilhelm Ihne remarked:...
  
  

External links

• Fiscus, article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities