Fund Collection through Litigation by the State Treasury in the Roman Empire (with Special Reference to the First Three Centuries A.D.)

Marzena Dyjakowska

doi:10.18778/2084-140X.02.03

Authors

Marzena Dyjakowska Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Wydział Prawa, Prawa Kanonicznego i Administracji, Katedra Historii Państwa i Prawa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2084-140X.02.03

Abstract

The paper discusses the confiscation of property (publicatio bonorum) as a source of revenue for the fiscus in ancient Rome. The term fiscus means, among other things, the public property, State funds, but also the private property of emperors. The confiscated property could be adjudged not only to aerarium – the State Treasury (publicare), but also to the personal treasury of emperors, and trials seem to have been inspired to supply it. The most „successful” accusation was connected with the crime of lese-majesty: the scope of this crime was especially wide and it was easy to convict the defendant. The Senate often voted for adjudgement of the confiscated property in respect of the Emperor, especially if the convict had received some benefits from him. This practice turned into a rule and the Emperor’s treasury became the sole beneficiary of publicatio bonorum. Some emperors are especially known as rulers accumulating their private property on confiscated goods (Caligula, Septimius Severus, Domitian). A portion of those goods was due to the children of the defendant; some rescripts issued by the emperors even ordered to transfer his whole property in the first place to his descendants. In spite of the rule that it was necessary to find the defendant guilty to confiscate his property, the publicatio bonorum was not available; when he committed suicide before the sentence, a presumption was made that this act was equal to a guilty plea. According to another rule – confessus pro indicato est – the defendant was convicted unless his suicide was justified. The personal belongings (pannicularia) were to be confiscated, too, but only after the conviction.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Epistulae, CXIX, 5, trans. R.M. Gummere, Cambridge Mass. 1953.
Google Scholar

Valerius Maximus, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri novem, VI, 2, 11, rec. K.F. Kempf, Lipsiae 1888.
Google Scholar

Tacitus, Libri ab excessu divi Augusti, II, 47, ed. P.K. Huibregtse, vol. I, Groningen 1958.
Google Scholar

Marcus Tullius Cicero, In Verrem, II, 3, 197, [in:] Scripta quae manserunt omnia, rec. R. Klotz, vol. I, pars 2, Lipsiae 1869.
Google Scholar

Suetonius, De vita caesarum / The Lives of the Caesars, II, 101, trans. J.C. Rolfe, London–New York 1914.
Google Scholar

Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Historia Romana, LIX, 9, trans. E. Cary, H.B. Foster, vol. VII, Cambridge 1959.
Google Scholar

Frontinus, The Strategems and the Aqueducts of Rome, II, 128,trans. C.E. Benett, Cambridge 1961.
Google Scholar

Lo Cascio E., The Early Roman Empire: the State and the Economy, [in:] The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, ed. W. Scheidel, J. Morris, R. Saller, Cambridge 2007.
Google Scholar

Hitchner R.B., The Advantages of Wealth and Luxury. The Case for Economic Growth in the Roman Empire, [in:] The Ancient Economy. Evidence and Models, ed. J.G. Manning, I. Morris, Stanford 2005.
Google Scholar

Sutherland C.H.V., Aerarium and Fiscus during the Early Empire, „American Journal of Philology” 66.2, 1945.
Google Scholar

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, De beneficiis, VII, 6, 3, [in:] Moral Essays, trans. J.W. Bassore, vol. III, Cambridge 1958.
Google Scholar

Jones A.H.M., The Aerarium and the Fiscus, [in:] Studies in Roman Government and Law, Oxford 1960.
Google Scholar

Brunt P.A., The “Fiscus” and its Development, „Journal of Roman Studies” 56, 1966.
Google Scholar

Plinius, Naturalis Historia, VI, 84, trans. H. Rackham, Cambridge 1942.
Google Scholar

Plinius, Naturalis Historia, XII, 113, trans. H. Rackham, Cambridge 1940.
Google Scholar

Corpus Iuris Civilis, ed. T. Mommsen, vol. I, Berolini 1906.
Google Scholar

Dyjakowska M., Crimen laesae maiestatis. Studium nad wpływami prawa rzymskiego w dawnej Polsce, Lublin 2010.
Google Scholar

Sajkowski R., Oskarżenia o obrazę majestatu w procesach de repetundis. Obwinienie Gajusza Juniusza Sylanusa z roku 22 n.e., „Czasopismo Prawno-Historyczne” 51, 1999.
Google Scholar

Bauman R.A., Impietas in Principem. a study of treason against the Roman Emperor with special reference to the first century A.D., Munich 1974.
Google Scholar

Sajkowski R., Wybrane problemy oskarżenia Gajusza Syliusza i jego małżonki Sozji, „Studia Prawnoustrojowe” 7, 2007, p. 107–108.
Google Scholar

Brasiello U., La repressione penale in diritto Romano, Napoli 1937.
Google Scholar

Wałek-Czernecki T., Historia gospodarcza świata starożytnego, vol. II, Grecja – Rzym, Warsaw 1948.
Google Scholar

Millar F., The Fiscus in the First Two Centuries, „Journal of Roman Studies” 53, 1963.
Google Scholar

Plinius, Panegyricus, 42, 1, [in:] C. Plinii Secundi Epistularum libri novem; Epistolarum ad Traianum liber; Panegyricus, ed. M. Schuster, R. Hanslik, Lipsiae 1958.
Google Scholar

Scriptores Historiae Augustae: Vita Hadriani, 7, tr. D. Magie, London–New York 1960.
Google Scholar

Amielańczyk K., Polityka fiskalna cesarza Hadriana w sprawach karnych, [in:] Podstawy materialne państwa. Zagadnienia prawno-historyczne, ed. D. Bogacz, M. Tkaczuk, Szczecin 2006, p. 591–592.
Google Scholar

Amielańczyk K., Rzymskie prawo karne w reskryptach cesarza Hadriana, Lublin 2006.
Google Scholar

Volterra E., Processi penali controi defunti in diritto romano, „Revue internationale des droits de l’antiquité” 3, 1949.
Google Scholar

Chilton C.W., The Roman Law of Treason under the early Principate, „Journal of Roman Studies” 45, 1955, p. 72–81.
Google Scholar

Puliatti S., Il di Callistrato e il processo fiscale in età severiana, Milano 1992.
Google Scholar

Rominkiewicz J., Samobójstwo w prawie rzymskim, „Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis. Prawo” 288, 2004.
Google Scholar

Kuryłowicz M., Taedium vitae w rzymskim prawie karnym, [in:] Contra leges et bonos mores. Przestępstwa obyczajowe w starożytnej Grecji i Rzymie, ed. H. Kowalski, M. Kuryłowicz, Lublin 2005, p. 192–193.
Google Scholar