§ 1. Among the ancients there were two kinds of Quaestors, Urban and Provincial. The Urban were called either Quaestors of the Treasury, or Quaestors of Parricide, that is, Capital Quaestors. In this place we treat not of investigators of crimes but of Magistrates of the Treasury, who manage the patrimony of the state. In no matter is there greater danger; nowhere is a fall easier even for steadfast men. The Wise Man spoke most wisely: “Blessed is the man who has been found without blemish, and who has not gone after gold, nor placed his hope in treasures of money. Who is he, and we shall praise him? For he has done marvelous things in his life.” To receive and expend a great sum of money, amid great opportunity for gain and over a long time, without suspicion of fault is arduous; not to employ one of the thousand arts of plundering which lie ready to hand belongs to a most upright spirit. When I consider the things which I either read have been done or hear are being done, I perceive that in no class of offices are more frauds admitted, or greater or more frequent punishments inflicted.
§ 2. The Quaestorship was granted in the twenty-seventh year,
after ten campaigns. Some refer its beginnings to Romulus, others to Tullus Hostilius. But its beginnings must have been slight, as in a poor kingdom. For those two shepherds could be Quaestors for themselves, when
One hearth was the brothers’ greatest kingdom.
When Valerius had established the treasury, he created two Quaestors in the Curiate Assembly. Sigonius, book 2, On the Ancient Law of Roman Citizens. See π., book 1, title 13, On the Office of the Quaestor.
§ 3. All the duties of the Quaestors were, as it were, private; for they possessed no command, did not use a curule chair, fasces, or lictors, and were permitted neither to summon anyone to plead a cause nor to arrest anyone. They could be summoned into court by any private person. They had only this in common with Magistrates: that they could convene an assembly. Dionysius, book 8.
The treasury and revenues of the Roman people were entrusted to the care of the Quaestors. They disbursed both public and private money, deposited it in the treasury, and entered receipts and expenditures in the accounts.
They received Ambassadors, provided lodging and lautia, furnished gifts and provisions—even clothing—and took care that neither the Ambassadors nor their companions lacked anything. They also undertook the care of the sick, and if they died, conducted the funeral at public expense. They also preserved the decrees of the Senate, but this duty was transferred to them at a late date.
Two honors were granted to the Quaestors. First, they brought forth from the treasury the military standards for a Consul setting out to war. Second, those who were going to seek a triumph had to affirm under oath before the Quaestors that the number of enemies and citizens killed had been reported truthfully to the Senate.
§ 4. Quaestors were at first created from the Patricians; afterward the power was shared with the plebs. Livy, book 4, records a remarkable example of the people’s despising its own Tribunes and choosing nobles: “All the Tribunes, inflamed by this insult, were indignant—Pompilius and Antistius before all the rest. ‘What,’ they said, ‘was the meaning of this? Neither by their own benefactions, nor by the wrongs of the fathers, nor finally by the desire to exercise a right—although what had not previously been lawful was now lawful—had they prevailed so that, if not a Military Tribune, not even any Quaestor should be made from the plebs. The entreaties of a father for a son, of a brother for a brother, and of the Tribunes of the Plebs, whose sacrosanct power had been created for the aid of liberty, had not prevailed.’”
Afterward Quaestors were created to accompany the Consuls to war and to furnish the things necessary for the army. The place assigned to them was called the quaestorium. In Livy, book 10: “An attack was made upon the rear of the camp, at the Decuman Gate; and so the quaestorium was taken, and the Quaestor Lucius Opimius Pansa was killed there.”
§ 5. Proconsuls and Propraetors possessed their own Quaestors in the provinces. These too obtained provinces by lot, just as the Consuls themselves did. They used Lictors to represent the majesty of their command. They also wore the bordered toga, administered justice, and appointed recuperatores; Praetors sometimes entrusted command to them. Otherwise their proper duty was to give, from money received from the treasury, pay to the armies and the Praetorian cohort and traveling-money to Ambassadors; to exact the revenue money; and to carry it back into the treasury. They did not always enter the provinces at the same time as the Proconsuls and Propraetors. From this it is apparent how great the abstinence and integrity required in Quaestors, especially Provincial Quaestors, who with such great power hung over the fortunes of the allies.
§ 6. The Emperors later changed the name of the Quaestors, for the Counts of the Sacred Largesses held the office and power of the Quaestor. To this Count was entrusted the care of the imperial treasuries; this fund was available to the Prince for exercising liberality. For from the treasuries all expect the Prince’s liberality, and it befits a Prince to hold wealth for liberality, not for avarice. Arcadius and Honorius write to Limenius, Count of the Sacred Largesses, Code, book 1, title 32: “Let them know that four-month accounts are also to be sent to the Palatine office, and that the gold exacted is to be sent to the Sacred Largesses without any delay.” He had several Counts stationed throughout the provinces, who presided over the collection of money. For the Counts of Mines, Commerce, and Wardrobes, as also the Accountants of the General Funds, the Superintendents of Treasuries, the Procurators of Mints, the Procurators of the Gynaecea—for so they called the sacred weaving-establishments—and likewise the Procurators of the Dye-Works, and whatever was serviceable for making money, belonged to the Count of the Largesses.
He presided over the striking of coin; for he acted so that the countenance of the Prince was impressed upon the metals in common use. Cassiodorus, book 6, formula 7:
To him are entrusted the sacred wealth and the tributes Of the possessed world, whatever gold is rolled down by rivers, Whatever, far from daylight, the hidden industry of the pallid Bessian, Searching out the following veins, digs forth.
§ 7. The custom of other nations was not dissimilar. Among the Athenians there were Magistrates called Ταμίαι, ten in number. Harpocration describes their office: Παραλαμβάνουσι δ’ οὗτοι τό τε ἄγαλμα τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς, καὶ τὰς νίκας, καὶ τὸν ἄλλον κόσμον καὶ τὰ χρήματα ἐναντίον τῆς βουλῆς, εἰσὶ δὲ τινες καὶ τῶν τριήρων ταμίαι. “These Quaestors receive the statue of Minerva, the Victories, the rest of the adornment, and the money in the presence of the Senate. There are also certain Quaestors of the triremes.” Hence came those Roman laws. Hence among other nations there were γαζοφύλακες, ἐπιμεληταὶ τῶν θησαυρῶν, καὶ δημοσίων χρημάτων, θησαυρῶν προεστῶτες, ἐπιτροπεύοντες τοὺς θησαυρούς, ἔπαρχοι καταλόγων: keepers of the treasury, overseers of treasures and public moneys, men set over treasuries, men administering the treasuries, and prefects of the registers. Such a man is found in 2 Maccabees, chapter 3. Heliodorus was ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν χρημάτων βασιλείας—one who was set over the King’s treasury. The name of Quaestor did not afterward become obsolete, although the office was transferred to others. Codinus says that in his own time the Quaestor had no office, although formerly he had possessed one. In Menander, On Embassies, Gaianus is sent to the Persians, being one of the royal Fathers, καὶ τὴν λεγομένην κοιαίστωρ ὀφέτζαν ἀρχὴν ἐν αὐτοῖς τελέσας, “and exercising the authority of Quaestor.” Was it perhaps restored at that time? Or was the ἀρχὴ without a function and merely the name of a dignity? It is assuredly established that the Count of the Largesses and the Quaestor existed at the same time, as in law 12, Code, title 6: “Those who have flourished through the honor of the Quaestorship, through official mastery, or through the dazzling splendor of the Countship of either of our treasuries shall be received with the customary acclamation and shall not be passed over as unknown.” Given on the eighth day before the Kalends of July at Thessalonica, in the fifth consulship of Gratian and the first of Theodosius, Emperors. Thus was it decreed by the Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius.
§ 8. The Quaestorians were those who handled some part of the Quaestorship. The λογοθέτης στρατιωτικός, who in Latin is named the Accountant of the Military Treasury, was one of them. Zonaras, volume 3. Afterward they were called Treasurers, who kept money safe in the individual provinces until they sent it at the established time to the Count of the Sacred Largesses. Special provision was made for their fidelity, because they had to give security.
Third, it was the one principal duty of all Governors of provinces that they should attend to the tributes and see that they were sent safely
to the Count of the Largesses, as in Novel 134. Indeed, not even places of asylum could protect anyone, as Justinian decreed in Novel 17: “You shall see that the exactions of public tributes are made in a seemly manner even within the temples, since the fiscal account is useful and necessary to soldiers, private persons, the temples themselves, and the entire state. The Defenders and Stewards of the Churches, beloved of God, will also assist you, neither snatching from exaction any of those who exact fiscal tributes, nor permitting those who bring the exaction to suffer any violence or sedition; for they know that if they do anything of this kind, they will be compelled to satisfy the fisc from their own property.”
Fourth, because Financial Administrators were assigned to the Governors for collecting tributes, they were called διοικηταὶ, but the Great Financial Administrator was the one to whom the collected revenues were delivered. The Great Financial Administrator who resided at Constantinople appears to have been the General Quaestor, and perhaps at some time held the office of the Count of the Largesses or acted in his place.
Fifth, because there was never an end of frauds and the fisc possessed many champions, other men too were appointed, called λογοθέται, whom they called Auditors; they were examiners of the public accounts, relieved those unjustly burdened, and sometimes defined the measure of the revenues. A Theodosian law concerning them survives in law 2 of the Code, On the Jews.
For the same reason there were Exactors, or Executors. All who were sent under any right whatever had to disclose everything to the Governor. Thus the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius established, Code, book 12, title 61: “Lest a Palatine Exactor approach through divided parts of the provinces, or an Apparitor of Illustrious men wander about, or military terror bring fear, we ordain by this law that all the persons mentioned shall attend to the Governor of the province and act with him. With him pressing, directing, and taking cognizance, they shall transact the matter at his peril and fulfill everything.” Given on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of July at Milan, in the consulship of Olybrius and Probinus.
Indeed, he must also prove his case to the Judge. Thus the same Emperors established: “Whether anyone has been dispatched from the Praetorian office, from the Illustrious Countship of the Sacred Largesses, from the service of our Private Estate, or from any body of Apparitors, for the accomplishment of any necessity, let him know that within the bounds of one year he must, after gathering his accounts, return to his own Judge and show him his effectiveness: what was exacted through his urgency, what remains among the debts and with whom it remained, or through whose fault or for what reason it was left in the same province. But if, after the space of a year has been completed, he is detected lingering in the bowels of that region, lying in wait as a plunderer, then, stripped of his military belt, he shall be cast out. A fine of ten pounds of gold is imposed upon the chiefs of that service if he evades returning; and, bound with iron chains by the successive offices, under the care of the provincial office, he shall be sent to the examination which is due. Nor shall he be free to defend himself by this privilege or pretext: that he alleges another business or another necessity was imposed upon him afterward, since we take from the same persons license to continue an exaction in the same province.” Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of October, in the eighth consulship of Our Lord Theodosius Augustus and the consulship of Pallas.
Sixth, those called Dispatchers and Canonical Collectors were subject to the same laws. Cashiers too were appointed not only to guard but also to exact the tributes.
Seventh, the variety of business compelled the establishment of another Master in this class. He was the Master of the Census; before him declarations, wills, and gifts were published, and the Census-Officers obeyed him. It belonged to them to be present at public acts and preserve them; those who exhibited public games deposited money and prizes with them. But the matter in which the Census-Officers were chiefly occupied is established from Novel 17: “You shall compel the public Exactors to make everything evident in their receipts concerning those matters for which they gave them: namely, the quantity of zygocephala, or yokes, or yoked lands, or by whatever name they are called throughout the regions; the estates for which these and any other things are exacted; and the quantity given, whether in kind or in gold. You shall threaten them both with a great penalty and with amputation of the hand if henceforth they do not in every manner observe that which is always commanded but until now has not been observed. But if, as is customary, they discover some evasion, saying that the quantity of the yokes cannot be entered, we indeed believe that they are acting maliciously above all; yet neither the fisc nor the contributors shall be injured thereby. For the fisc shall receive everything belonging to it without prejudice, and those who have paid these things shall receive receipts completed in due form, with nothing more to be exacted. The cause shall be harmed in no respect, and according to custom the tributes shall be paid by them and brought into the fisc. But it shall be reported to our Most Glorious Prefects concerning these Census-Officers, who must first be compelled to give minutely the aforesaid statements, so that from this an adjudication of the matter may be made. And thus, meanwhile, the fiscal payments being made according to custom and brought in without fault, whatever our Most Glorious Prefects shall judge concerning those matters which are in doubt shall prevail in the matters which are disputed. After the truth concerning these questions has been learned, the Exactors shall be under the necessity henceforth to describe in those receipts also the quantity of the zygocephala and of all other things, in accordance with what has thus been ordained by us.”
§ 9. Not all the duties of the Curials were different from these. For although they were the most honored men of the cities, and the Senates and sinews of the cities, they were nevertheless compelled to sustain the burden of exacting the tributes; indeed, frequently, while the interest of the fisc was being hastened, they were compelled to pay for persons of slender means. They were also called Decurions. The government applied itself to collecting money to such a degree that almost all men in a Magistracy were Quaestors or their assistants. For this reason the Decurions followed and tracked every method of plundering, so that they might not suffer loss. Salvian rightly says in book 4: “The Roman state, either already dead or at least drawing its last breath, is dying in that part in which it still appears to live, strangled by the bonds of tributes as though by the hands of robbers.” The Emperor Anastasius appointed Vindices to restrain the unjust exactions of the Decurions and to make the exactions themselves; but, enticed by the sweetness of plunder, they advanced more oppressively, so that Justinian rightly removed them. It was an honor of the Decurions that they could not be subjected to the tortures of plebeians. If they embezzled public money, they were beaten with leaded whips. At their own peril the Decurions nominated a Tax-Receiver to collect the tributes; those who had nominated or consented to him were compelled to give security for him. He deposited in the warehouses not only money, but a fiftieth of the wheat, a fortieth of the barley, and a twentieth of the wine and lard. But the arrangement concerning the Decurions and the Vindices is explained in Novel 38:
Those who formerly ordered the state for us thought that it was necessary, after the model of the Royal City, to unite the noble men in each city and to give each Senate a Curia, through which public affairs ought to be conducted and all things done according to order. Thus, therefore, the condition flourished; thus it was illustrious, because the households of the Curials were great and populous and there existed a multitude of Curials. What appeared to be the burden of public functions was utterly intolerable to no one. For that which is divided among a multitude renders the burden almost imperceptible to those who sustain it. But when they began, one by one, to remove themselves
from the roll of the Curia and to discover occasions through which they might be made free from these obligations, the Curiae were thus gradually diminished by the invention of innumerable occasions through which private affairs might fare well while common and public affairs were diminished. Therefore the public functions, reduced to a few men, disturbed their resources also, and the cities were so diminished that, when the Curia had been reduced beneath those ruinous Contractors whom they call Vindices, it came about that the state was made full of deficiencies and full of every injustice. We, often examining these things, judged that it was necessary to apply a remedy to the condition. Yet, to the same extent that we labored in this, the Curials discovered every art against those things which were rightly and justly ordained and against the fisc. For when they saw themselves compelled by every means to preserve a fourth part for the Curia—and this had scarcely been imposed by our laws—they began to tear apart their own resources so that they might die with less property and leave to the Curia not a fourth portion but immediately all their poverty. Finally, because they wished to defraud the Curia even of their own bodies, they discovered the most impious expedient of all: we learn that they abstained from marriages, so that they chose rather to die without children than to die subject to the law or to appear useless to their own family or to the Curia.
The condition of the Decurions was altogether harsh, so much so that many preferred to follow armed military service, as is established from the Code, book 12, title 34. Sometimes they remained obstinately in hiding, and then their goods were granted to those who belonged to the duties of the Duumvirate. Since, therefore, they were compelled to the Decurionate in so many ways, it is established that its administration was extremely difficult.
§ 10. Today these matters have been more advantageously provided for, especially where the handling of money is divided among many; for among them some are always found who do not wish to deceive, and because of them the others either cannot or dare not do so. In the Kingdom of France there is a Council which they call the Council of Finances, in which there are Quaestors and Superintendents. There is also the Court of Aids, or Contributions. Charles VI, King of France, imposed a revenue upon wine and other merchandise; so that the peoples might bear it more lightly, he called it an aid. Over it he placed two Clerics and two Laymen of known integrity and fidelity. Then, when controversies arose, a Bishop as President and three Councillors, together with a Procurator and an Advocate-General, were added. Afterward these judgments were transferred to others, and the number of Councillors and Presidents was increased by Charles VII, Louis XII, and Henry II. Meanwhile the Masters of Accounts and Receivers of moneys are bound to render an account in the Chamber, whose Procurator takes cognizance of crimes committed by Accountants and Treasurers.
It has also been rightly established that four Treasurers-General of the Domain travel throughout the provinces entrusted to them and take cognizance of the lesser Treasurers.
Nothing is more pernicious than to have Treasurers of Casual Revenues who receive money paid for offices and dignities. Louis XIII has now abolished this with a fortunate beginning.
Nor ought it to be passed over that the President of the Treasury, and as it were the Supreme Quaestor or Count of the Largesses, is called among the French the Treasurer of Savings, so that they may indicate that the Royal Treasury increases through nothing more than through the economy and frugality of the Prince. His duty is to command the Treasurers of War to pay the soldiers’ stipends. They do this through Commissioners and Paymasters, to whom Counter-Scribes are joined.
§ 11. The origin of the ἀντιγραφέων, or Counter-Scribes, as they are now called, is very ancient. Aristotle advises that public money be delivered in the presence of the citizens and that duplicate records be written, so that it cannot be embezzled.
These men continually adhere to Receivers, Treasurers, Tax-Receivers, and Equalizers, so as to impede frauds. France has therefore departed little from the ancient state; and where it has changed, it has established matters more rightly. First, it possesses a Treasurer. Next, it is not a Governor or Quaestor who judges concerning the tributes, but a Council, whose judgment is always more sincere in this cause. Then it has four Receivers-General of the assessed contributions; in each Election there are two Receivers, who carry the money of their Province to the Receivers-General. They too are assisted by Equalizers, who, in accordance with equity and fairness and according to the resources of each person, apportion and collect tributes throughout the parishes. If all these things are administered by men of upright life and haters of injustice, an immense sum of money can be collected without molestation of the subjects.
Nor is the Belgian Quaestorship dissimilar. For the Council of Finances handles monetary affairs, and in it the Treasurer and Receiver possess principal authority. That Council directs all public expenditures. It has annexed to it the Chamber of Accounts, in which all others to whom money has been entrusted are compelled to render an account to seven Masters of Accounts.
§ 12. Among the Spanish there are different Quaestorships in the various Kingdoms. In the Palace itself is the Council which they call the Hazienda. Three Quaestors, whom they call Cantadores and who from their dignity are called Majors, meet in it several times each week; an equal number of Minor Quaestors are joined to them, together with a Secretary, a Reporter, and Councillors of the Chamber. The matter of their deliberations consists of all revenues, debts and their payments, mortgages, alienations, and recoveries.
Controversies concerning money are decided by the same Quaestors, with four other Auditors and one Secretary joined to them. That Council is called the Cantadoria.
The same Officials have others, when they meet in Council, whom they call Cantadores de Cuentas; for in it the revenues of all the Provinces and Kingdoms are recorded, and accounts are given of receipts and expenditures.
§ 13. The Quaestors of the Genoese preserve and increase the state. I find their arrangement described in this manner. Bell., volume 3: “But in order that the citizens might be rendered more eager to disburse money to the state, security was given to creditors by assigning certain pledges and revenues from duties on grain, wine, or other things, and so forth. And this contract, as it were, between the state and private persons was called a Compera. It was added that those who had given one hundred pounds as a loan should hold one new place in this Society, as it were; those who had given two hundred should hold two places; and so on. Thus Comperae, or Societies of this kind, were greatly multiplied; some of them were called those of the Chapter, others of Saint Paul, others of salt, and so forth. Each of these was administered by certain citizens, whose task it was to take care that the creditors were duly satisfied and that the accounts between them and the state were justly preserved.
“But when, as is customary, confusion had arisen from the great multitude, it was decreed that all should be reduced into one body, upon which the name of the Compera, or Chamber, of Saint George was bestowed; and its care was likewise entrusted to certain Citizens. Since they administered the duty entrusted to them with singular industry and prudence, while public necessities required great expenditures, the number of Holders of Places—for we said above that those admitted into this Society were so named—grew greatly. Thus, after a great part of the public revenues had been pledged, the responsibilities and business under the care of this Office increased in a remarkable manner, and towns and territories also came under its jurisdiction.
“Hence it came about that this Society obtained many privileges, first from the state itself, then from Pontiffs, Emperors, and other lords of the city. Thus, although this office depends upon the state itself and those who govern the palace, it is nevertheless not subject to the Urban Magistracy. Rather, all who undertake any part of the state are compelled to promise and swear that they will preserve its privileges inviolate. But just as in nearly all matters beginnings are very slender and despised, yet in the course of time gradually strive toward perfection, so it has also happened in this Office or Magistracy, whose form today is much better and more perfect than it was formerly. For as regards the calculation of the advantage or profit to be received by a Holder of a Place, something certain is no longer prescribed or determined, as formerly, but all things are directed according to the proportion of revenues and expenses, as also toward the preservation of those matters whose care has been entrusted to this Office, and according as the revenues have been more or less productive. Indeed, the present manner of receiving the revenues is much stricter and more accommodated to conscience. Moreover, as we have said, in this manner certain dominions and territories have been acquired for it, for whose easier administration it was necessary to establish new rules and new laws.
“With respect to this Office or Magistracy, the city of the Genoese can be divided, as it were, into two communities. The first is the Greater; it is governed by those who administer justice in the palace and comprises nearly the entire city. The other is small; the Magistracy of Saint George presides over it, and it pertains to the Holders of Places, or participants in the revenues. The former is subject to many changes and has sometimes experienced tyrannical government; but the latter has always been free and restricted to certain citizens, and has therefore been stable.”
§ 14. Formerly persons of lower condition sometimes handled the money, nor could they increase their wealth in this manner. They were called Accountants, and the Agents were frequently slaves or Freedmen of Caesar who handled the accounts of the patrimony; they too were called λογισταὶ καὶ λογοθέται. They were also called Agents of the Lord. Tertullian, in On the Soldier’s Crown, calls them Ministers of the Camp. They served for two years and thereafter could not return to the same office. Title On Camp and Ministerial Officers, chapter 12: “In the office of Your Spectability, according to the tenor of the divine responses, when the prescribed time—that is, the biennium—has been completed, let those who follow succeed to the position according to the merit of their labors and service when their predecessors depart; and let no license be granted to those who have laid down their office after completing it to return again to the same service or charge.”
Frequent mention is made of Primicerii not only in profane but also in sacred affairs. They were so called because, being the first men in their own order, they were entered first upon the wax tablet, or upon the first wax tablet. Suidas defines the first as τῆς τάξεως τυγχώνης, the first man of each order. The dignity of Primicerius makes one a Senator, Cassiodorus, book 6, chapter 7. It is equated with men Selected from the Consuls in law 19 of the Theodosian Code, On the Palatines of the Sacred Largesses. The Prince of the Thebans was called the Great Primicerius. There were therefore Primicerii of the Chamberlains, of the Private Estates, of the Bureaus, of the Notaries, of the Deputies, of the Augustales, and of the Singulares, that is, of those who wrote with signs.
§ 15. Twenty-six assistants, or Boethi, of the Quaestor are established in Novel 35: “Let the twenty-six assistants of the Quaestor, whom they call the Quaestor’s Boethi, be permitted to substitute others in their own place, yet suitable men whom the Quaestor for the time being shall choose with the Holy Gospels set before him. But those who are appointed in the place of those who have fallen from their position shall be appointed upon payment of one hundred solidi. Yet the men of these three grades—that is, of the Bureau of Memory and the two who are to be next—although they are not from the twenty-six assistants, shall nevertheless have license to substitute another in their own place. They shall therefore have the right to sell their military office, and for not more than one hundred solidi, provided that he who is substituted is appointed by the choice of the Quaestor. The constitution, however, gives privileges to Theodosius and Epictetus, and to Quirillus, Sabbatius, and Perigenes, with this condition plainly observed: if any of the twenty-six Assistants has died, one hundred solidi shall be given to his heirs, and they shall serve by the choice of the Quaestor. But if they are the children of the deceased, they shall possess the same right, although they have not become heirs to their Parent.” Given at Constantinople, in the consulship of Belisarius.
They called “Assessments” that which was owed in each Province or city in grain, gold, and other things. An Assessment-Letter was an Epistle by which those things were granted, and sometimes a right to enter estates was conferred. Concerning Tax-Receivers see title 70 of book 10 of the Code: “We decree that public Tax-Receivers shall receive gold without any delay, lest anyone be compelled to incur expense through this occasion. For if a man wishing to pay is spurned by the Receiver, he must, after summoning witnesses, set forth an attestation; so that, when this has been proved, he himself, freed from the bond of the liability incurred, may receive the security due together with the profits, while the man who neglected to receive it is compelled by the force of the Governor’s office to bring into the accounts of the fisc twice the weight that was owed. But whatever a Tax-Receiver has wrongfully violated while the Judge whose concern it is remains negligent shall be repaired from the resources of that Judge himself.” Given on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Paulinus and Julianus.
Thus the fisc is secured in many ways; but Quaestors know more arts of securing themselves. They rarely depart poor from office and often depart rich from plunder. Would that there were as great a care for the poor as there is for public wealth. Ancient examples are by no means lacking. For it is worthy not only of remembrance but most especially of imitation that even great Princes wished to be ὀρφανοτρόφοι, keepers of orphans. Zonaras reports that the brother of Michael the Paphlagonian was an ὀρφανοτρόφον, a keeper of orphans. Cedrenus reports the same.
§ 16. Many laws forbid the frauds of Exactors; few restrain them. Meanwhile, useful are those which prohibit them from doing anything without the knowledge of the Governor of the Province, Code, book 12, title 61; which require them to render an account within a year; and, finally, which prohibit them from doing anything that has not been entrusted to them. Thus Arcadius and Honorius, Code, book 12, title 61: “Whoever from our palace, under any title, has traveled to the Provinces—whether a Compulsor, Exactor, Summoner, or Bearer of a Precept, an Agent in Affairs, a Palatine, or an Apparitor of the Illustrious authorities—shall seize only so much power as is specially approved by the mandate of his own bureau. Let no one presume by right of his corporation upon that which was enjoined upon another; and while they do not divide this among themselves by the license of reciprocal duty, let all perform that which was entrusted to each one.” Given on the day before the Kalends of July at Milan, in the consulship of Olybrius and Probinus.
“Whether anyone has been dispatched from the Praetorian Office, from the Illustrious Countship of the Sacred Largesses, from the service of our Private Estate, or from any body of Apparitors, for the accomplishment of any necessity, let him know that within the bounds of one year he must, after gathering his accounts, return to his own Judge and show him his effectiveness: what was exacted through his urgency, what remains among the debts and with whom it remained, or through whose fault or for what reason it was left in the same
Province. But if, after the space of a year has been completed, he is detected lingering in the bowels of that region, lying in wait as a plunderer, then, stripped of his military belt, he shall be cast out. A fine of ten pounds of gold is imposed upon the chiefs of that service if they evade his return; and, bound with iron chains by the successive offices, under the care of the provincial office, he shall be sent to the examination which is due. Nor shall he be free to defend himself by this privilege or pretext: that he alleges another business or another necessity was imposed upon him afterward, since we take from the same persons license to continue an exaction in the same province.” Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of October, in the eighth consulship of Our Lord Theodosius Augustus and the consulship of Palladius.
The laws of title 26, book 12, should be restored to use: “If anyone knows that he has been injured by the Ducenarii, Centenarii, or Advocates of the Fisc, let him not delay to approach the courts and prove the injury, so that vengeance may be taken upon the man who is convicted with fitting severity.” Given on the Kalends of November at Trier, in the fourth consulship of Constantine Augustus and the fifth of Licinius.
“Beyond the customary and canonical payments, many things are most unworthily demanded from provincials by Scholastic Officials not only in the individual cities but also at the stopping-places, while sustenance is supplied without price to them and to their animals. Therefore let all the Judges protect the provincials and not permit injuries to pass unavenged.” Given on the third day before the Kalends of July, in the consulship of Leontius and Sallustius.
“Whenever a Compulsor is accused of plundering and convicted, let him undergo, even without consulting Our Clemency, the punishment fitting under the laws.” Given on the day before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of Stilicho and Aurelianus.
“We wish assistance to be given to Curials, Shipmasters, and all corporate bodies in such a way that no Apparitor of any Judge is permitted anything which pertains to the plunder of provincials.”
§ 17. I conclude this treatment of Magistrates and add that they will act rightly if every day they repeat their oath with a true resolve to keep it and weigh that which is set forth in Novel 8, title 3:
I swear by Almighty God, and by His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit, and by the holy, glorious Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, and by the four Gospels which I hold in my hands, and by the holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, that, on account of the administration entrusted to me by their Piety, I shall preserve a pure conscience and genuine service toward our Most Sacred Lords Justinian and Theodora his consort; and I undertake every labor and toil with favor, without fraud and without any artifice, in the administration entrusted to me by them concerning their Empire and state. I am in communion with the Most Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of God, and in no manner or at any time shall I oppose it; nor, to the extent that I have the power, shall I permit anyone else whatever to do so.
I also swear the same oath that I have given and shall give absolutely nothing to anyone on account of the belt given to me, nor on account of patronage or promise; nor have I undertaken, nor shall I undertake, to send anything from the province, whether on account of the Lord’s recommendation, to the Most Renowned Prefects who hold the administration, to those who are about them, or to any other man. But just as I received the belt without recommendation, so too shall I exhibit myself purely toward the subjects of our Most Pious Lords, content with those provisions which have been established for me from the fisc.
And first I shall exercise every care to watch over fiscal matters vigilantly. I shall exact from the disloyal and from those who are in arrears through constraint with every vehemence, by no means being inclined beneath anyone, nor considering gain itself at all on this account, nor exacting from anyone less than is fitting through favor or hatred, nor granting remission to anyone. But I shall treat the loyal in a paternal manner, and, to the extent that I have the power, shall preserve the subjects of our Most Pious Lords unharmed on every side.
I shall act equitably toward each party in causes and in public discipline, and shall furnish nothing to either party beyond what is just. Rather, I shall pursue all offenses and preserve all equity according to what shall appear just to me. Those who are innocent I shall preserve innocent and unharmed on every side; but upon the guilty I shall impose punishment according to law. And, as has already been said, I shall preserve every justice and right in public and private contracts.
If I discover that the fisc is suffering injustice, I shall not merely act concerning this myself, but shall also endeavor always to take as my Assessor such a man, and likewise all those about me, so that I am not pure while those about me steal and offend. But if any such person is found about me, I shall remedy what has proceeded from him and expel him.
But if I do not thus observe all these things, may I receive my punishment here and in the age to come in the terrible judgment of the great Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ; may I have my portion with Judas, the leprosy of Gehazi, and the trembling of Cain; and, in addition, I shall be subject to the punishments which are contained in the law of their Piety.