Dictionary
TAXES	100.00%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 In Athens, as in the free states of Greece generally, the citizens were freed from every personal tax; only for their slaves they had to pay the triobolon, a yearly poll-tax of three obols (4d.) for each. On the other hand, among the residents who were not citizens, the metoeci (q.v.) paid a yearly protection tax of twelve drachmae (8s.) for each independent man, and six drachmoe for every woman who managed her own house, and the freedmen paid the triobolon in addition. Besides this, all tradesmen who were not citizens had to pay a trade tax. (For extraordinary taxes on property see EISPHORA; for the more or less costly public services undertaken by wealthy citizens, see LEITOURGIA.) As indirect taxes may be mentioned: (1) the tax of 1 per cent. on the selling price paid at the sale of a piece of land. (2) The market tax, which was paid, partly at the gates, partly at the place of sale, by strangers and metoeci for the wares offered for sale in retail dealing; different articles were charged at different rates. (3) The tax on imports and exports, which was 2 per cent. on all imported or exported goods without distinction of kind. The State did not levy its dues and taxes itself, but caused them to be let out to individuals or companies by special officials, called the Poletoe (q.v.). (See TELONAe.) As at Athens, so under the Roman Republic, there was no direct taxation for citizens, except the property tax raised in extraordinary cases. (See TRIBUTUM.) The Roman citizen paid indirect taxes in the harbour tax (see PORTORIUM), and the tax introduced after 357 B.C. on the manumission of slaves at the rate of 5 per cent. of the value of the slave set free (vicesima manumissionis). Both taxes were let by the State to publicani (q.v.). Rome did not receive from her allies in Italy either direct or indirect taxes, apart from the obligations as to supplying soldiers and ships imposed on them by the alliance. After the right of citizenship was granted to them in 89 B.C. they were placed on the same footing as the citizens with respect to indirect taxes. But the provinces had to pay all the more to Rome, partly by direct, partly by indirect taxation. Yet, especially with regard to the former, there was no similarity of treatment, but every province had its own form of taxation, which, as a rule, was assimilated to the system existing in it at the time of its conquest. Some provinces paid a fixed yearly sum (see STIPENDIUM), which was raised by communal districts through the chief towns of each district, while others paid a certain quota of the varying produce of the cultivated land in the province (see DECUMA), which was farmed out to publicani. The provinces felt indirect taxation chiefly through the harbour tax, and indeed every province seems to have formed a separate fiscal district. Under the Empire it was only the indirect taxes that were at first made higher for the citizens, as Augustus added to the taxes on harbours and manumission the centesima rerum venalium, 1 per cent. on the price of articles sold at auctions; the quinta et vicesima mancipiorum, or 4 per cent. on the price of every slave bought, and the vicesima hereditatum et legatorum, of 5 per cent. on all inheritances above 100,000 sesterces, which did not fall to the nearest blood-relations, and on all legacies. The freedom of the citizens from direct taxation continued unimpaired, and when Caracalla, in 212 A.D., had granted to all free subjects of the Empire the right of citizenship, Italy, at least, maintained its freedom from taxation, until Diocletian (in 284) removed the last distinctions between the inhabitants of Italy and of other parts of the Empire, and introduced into Italy the same taxation as obtained in the provinces. It had in course of time been reduced to a more uniform system, on the basis of a general census of the Empire. The chief tax was the land tax (tributum soli), the total sum of which was promulgated every year by the emperor for the whole Empire, and divided amongst the provinces according to the number of taxable units (iuga or capita) which each province was set down as containing in the periodically revised registers. Connected with this tax in money were contributions in kind to the imperial stores for the army and the officials, who had a claim to them. The male and female population of the country not possessing land paid after a certain age (20-25 years) a poll tax (tributum capitis), the amount of which was fixed by imperial ordinance, and for women was about half the sum imposed on men. Citizens resident in towns, and not possessing land, paid a tax partly on their property, partly, as far as they happened to be engaged in a trade, on their working capital and on the trade itself. The taxes apportioned to each town with its districts were raised by tax collectors (exactores), but the decuriones, or members of the municipal senates (see MUNICIPIUM), were responsible for the amount and had to advance it themselves.
PUBLICANI	67.47%
The Romans gave this name to those who did business with the State by becoming contractors for public buildings and for supplies, and to farmers of public lands, especially those who farmed the public taxes (vectigalia) for a certain time, on payment of a fixed sum. In Rome, as indeed throughout the ancient world (cp.TELONAe), the collection of taxes was made not by paid officials, but by farmers of taxes, who belonged to the equestrian order, as the senators were excluded from such business. The farmers of taxes, by the immense profits which they made, became a politically powerful class of capitalists. As the various taxes in the different provinces were let out as a whole by the censors, joint-stock companies were formed, societates publicanorum, whose members received a proportionate return for their invested capital. One member, the manceps, made a tender at the public auction, concluded the contract with the censors, and gave the necessary security. The duration of the contract was a lustrum, i.e. the period between one censorship and another, in imperial times always five years; it began on the 15th of March. The general superintendence was given to a magister societatis in Rome, who vacated office every year; the management of details was in the hands of numerous officials. According to the amount of the taxes farmed, the publicani received special names. The highest class, decumani, were the farmers of the decuma, the tenth part of the produce of the agricultural lands which had been taken from the old possessors. The pecuari or scripturarii, were the farmers of the scriptura, the tax levied for the use of the State pastures. The conductores portoriorum were the farmers of the portoria, the import and export dues, etc. In order to make the greatest possible gain, the publicani were guilty of the most grievous oppression of the provincials, whose only hope of relief lay in the governor, who was rarely able to help them for fear of these influential societies. Under the Empire the position of the provincials was improved; for the emperor, as the governor-in-chief of all the provinces, heard the final appeal in the case of any grievances. In imperial times, the decumani ceased to exist, and the letting out of taxes was entrusted to the official boards specially concerned with them.
STIPENDIUM	63.03%
TRIBUTUM	62.46%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Originally an extraordinary means of revenue among the Romans, levied on the burgesses in the proportion of 1-3 per thousand in times of war, when the means of the State treasury were of themselves not sufficient, and more especially after 406 B.C., when the State first took over the payment of the soldiers' wages. When the war was over, the money was generally repaid from contributions or from the booty. Subsequent to the conquest of Macedonia, 167 B.C., the income of the State from the provinces was so considerable, that the burgesses, although not legally exempt, ceased any longer to be subject to this payment. The strictly regulated taxes of the provinces also went by the same name, tributum soli, the ground-tax, and tributum capitis, the personal tax. (See STIPENDIUM.) Italy, up to his time exempt, was also made liable to these taxes by Diocletian, towards the end of the 3rd century A.D. (Cp. TAXES.)
TELONAE	49.65%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Among the Athenians, these were the farmers of the taxes and imposts, which were not collected by State officers, but were sold at certain times by auction to the highest bidder. Smaller taxes were taken up by single persons who collected the money themselves. For larger taxes demanding a large capital, companies were often formed, represented by one person called the telonarches, who concluded the contract with the State. Sureties had also to be produced on this occasion. Such companies employed subordinate officers to collect the taxes. The payments were made by the farmers at certain periods at the senate-house, or bouleuterion, and one payment was usually made in advance when the contract was made. In default of payment, the farmer became atimos, and in certain circumstances might be imprisoned. If the debt was not paid by the expiration of the 9th prytaneia, it was doubled, and the property of the debtor and his sureties confiscated. The atimia descended to the children until the debt was paid. On the other hand, the farmer was protected by the State against fraud by severe laws. He was also exempt from military service, so that he might not be hindered in performing his duties. For the similar institution among the Romans, see PUBLICANI.
VECTIGALIA	49.59%
POLETAE	38.39%
A financial board at Athens, composed of ten members chosen yearly from the tribes by lot. Their chief duties were the leasing of the public taxes and the selling of confiscated goods. [Aristotle, On the Constitution of Athens, 47.]
METOECI	37.73%
The name given at Athens to liens (other than slaves) resident in Attica. When the State was most flourishing, they numbered as many as 10,000 adult men. The favourable position of Athens for commerce and the rich opportunities for carrying on trade and for selling merchandise induced both Greeks and barbarians to settle there. The Athenians besides had the reputation among the Greeks of being friendly towards foreigners. For the legal protection granted them by the State, they paid a sum of twelve drachmoe [8s.] annually for each man, and half as much for each independent woman; and they had to choose a patron (prostates) to conduct their dealings with the State in all public and private affairs, e.g. the bringing of an action. Whoever failed to do the one or the other was summoned before a lawcourt, and, if guilt , sold as a slave. They were prohibited from marrying citizens and from obtaining landed property; but they could follow any trade they pleased, on payment of a certain tax. They also had to pay the extraordinary taxes for war, and were obliged to go on ilitary service either in the fleet or in the land-army; they might be hoplites, but not knights. At festivals it was their duty to follow the processions, carrying sunshades, pitchers, and bowls or trays (filled. with honey or cakes). A decree of the people could, in return for special services, confer on them the isoteleia, which placed them on a level with the citizens with regard to "liturgies," or public burdens, freed them from the necessity of having a patron or paying a tax for protection, and gave them the right of holding property in land and of transacting business with the people or the authorities without an intermediary; but even this privileged class did not possess the active rights of a citizen.
SYMMRIA	37.34%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A co-partnership, or company. (1) A term used at Athens to denote a company formed to raise the property tax instituted in the year 428 B.C., to defray war expenses. (SeeEISPHORA.) Each of the ten phyloe appointed 120 of its wealthier citizens, and these were divided into two symmorioe of sixty members each, so that the number of members in the twenty symmorioe amounted to 1,200 (called symmoritoe). Out of each of the twenty symmorioe, fifteen of the wealthier citizens were chosen, making 300 in all, whose duty it was to pay the taxes in advance on behalf of the rest. This sum had to be refunded to them by the rest in conjunction with the poorer taxable citizens, who were likewise apportioned off to various symmorioe, but without becoming actual members of them, and were drawn upon by the real symmoritoe to an extent proportional to their means. (2) After 358, this method was applied to the duty of equipping the war vessels, known as the trierarchia. (See LEITOURGIA.) Each of the twenty symmorioe had a certain number of ships assigned to it, the real symmoritoe (not including the poorer citizens) divided the expense among themselves, and a varying number (at the most sixteen), of the richest had to raise the money advanced for a ship. To manage its affairs, each symmoria had its superintendents, curators, and assessors. The magisterial control was in both cases in the hands of the strategi, being connected with the military supplies. Though, by this arrangement, the raising of taxes and fitting out of the ships were accelerated, yet it was open to abuse if the symmoritoe unduly burdened the poor by an unjust distribution. In the disputes which thus arose, the decision rested with the strategi. If any one thought that another ought to have been taxed instead of himself, he could avail himself of antidosis (q.v.) Even the metoeci, who (like the citizens) had to pay war taxes, were divided into symmorioe. [Aristotle, Constitution of Athens; 61, describes one of the strategi as individually responsible for superintending the symmorioe, for building triremes.]
PENESTAE	32.07%
In Thessaly the descendants of the older population subdued by the Thessalians. They managed the property of the owners as serfs bound to the soil, paying a moderate tax, and being also liable to be called out for military service. But their lords could not remove them from the land nor put them to death.
COURTESANS	19.89%
were tolerated in Rome as in Greece; and no objection was raised to the intercourse of unmarried men with these persons. They were under the charge of the aediles, and from the time of Caligula they had to pay a tax to the imperial exchequer. Steeped as they were in infamy, the law even refused to accept their testimony as valid. They were distinguishable from respectable women by their costume; they wore neither stola nor palla, but a shorter tunic without fringe, over which was a toga of darker colour; they were not permitted to adopt the characteristic head-gear of matrons. In the best times the trade was only carried on by slaves and freed-women, but afterwards by free-born women also.
THEORICON	18.08%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A distribution of two obols (about 3d.) a head, granted from the time of Pericles to the poorer Athenian citizens, from the common warchest (see HELLENOTAMIAe), to enable them to attend the representations at the theatre, two obols being the entrance fee levied by the lessees of the theatre. By degrees this grant was distributed to citizens who laid claim to it in the case of other entertainments. It was abolished towards the end of the Peloponnesian War, but again introduced after the restoration of the democracy; and a special fund, to which, by a decree of the people, the whole surplus of the revenue was to be devoted, was set apart for this purpose, under a special board, who had even for a time the management of the finances of the State. Demosthenes first succeeded, shortly before the battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.), in putting an end to this system, which so severely taxed the resources of the State in time of war.
DEMOS	16.60%
A Greek word meaning: (1) the people, either in contrast with a despot or the nobility, or as the depository of supreme power. (2) a district or region. Thus in the Athenian state the demes were the hundred administrative districts formed by Clisthenes, of which ten were contained in each of the ten tribes or phylae. The demes were named after the small towns and hamlets, and sometimes from distinguished families living there and owning property at the time of the division. In course of time the number of the demes increased through extension and division, so that in the age of Augustus it amounted to 174. According to the original arrangement all persons who belonged to a deme lived in its precincts. The descendants belonged to the same demes as their ancestors, even though they neither lived nor owned property there. To pass from one deme to another was only possible by adoption. To own property in a strange deme it was necessary to pay a special tax to it. As every citizen was obliged to belong to a deme, the complete official description of him included the name of his deme as well as of his father. Every deme had certain common religious rites, presided over by special priests. The demotae, or members of a deme, had also a common property, a common chest for receiving the rents and taxes, common officers with a demarchus at their head, and common meetings for the discussion of common interests, elections, and so forth. At these meetings the names of the young citizens of eighteen years old were written in the registers of the deme, and after two years were enrolled in the lists of persons qualified to take part in the meetings. It was also at these assemblies that the regular revision of the lists of Athenian citizens took place.
PROXENUS	14.49%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Greek term for the representative of a State who was appointed, from the citizens of another State, to attend to the interests of its citizens there resident, as often as they needed legal protection and assistance. In the interests of foreigners, many States appointed such representatives from among their own citizens. Their position may be compared with that of our consuls. The proxenus received many distinctions and honours from the State which he represented. To be nominated proxenus was in some cases only an honorary distinction, which the State conferred on such foreigners as resided in it as aliens (See METOECI), and were therefore unable to do any service abroad for the citizens of the State in which they resided. This distinction insured many privileges, such as freedom from taxation and from public burdens which otherwise fell on the resident aliens, and, in general, exemption from tolls and taxes; also the right to acquire property in land, free admission to the Senate and to the assemblies of the people, etc. [See Monceaux, Les Proxenies Grecques, 1886.]
PERIOECI	12.15%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The name of those inhabitants of the Spartan State who, unlike the serfs or helots (q.v.), had kept the possession of their lands and personal liberty after the Dorian occupation, but without having the citizenship. They too, like the helots, were at least twice as numerous as the ruling Spartiatae. Their name (lit. dwelling around) indicates that they lived on the plain in the neighbourhood of the chief city which was occupied by the Spartiatae. Probably they were more or less doricised by Dorian colonists sent into their towns, whereof as many as a hundred are mentioned. They were occupied partly in cultivating their farms (which, we learn, were smaller than those of the Spartiatae); partly in manufactures and industry, in which the ruling caste were forbidden to engage; partly in trade. Besides certain taxes, they were bound to military service, either as hoplites or as light-armed troops (as in the case of the Sciritoe or inhabitants of Sciritis, who formed a special body of light infantry, and were reserved for outpost duty when in camp, for advance and rearguard, and in battle for service on the left wing). After the Peloponnesian War they formed the chief strength of the army. (See WARFARE.) In the army they were also eligible as officers of the lower ranks; but from all civil offices they were excluded, as also from the popular assembly. They were completely subject to the orders of the Spartiatae; and when they made themselves troublesome, they could be put to death by the ephors without trial or conviction.
EISPHORA	11.57%
CLOACA	11.23%
A vaulted subterranean channel for carrying off drainage of every kind. As early as the 6th century B.C. Rome had an extensive system of sewers for draining the marshy ground lying between the bills of the city. By this the sewage was carried into a main drain (Cloaca Maxima ) which emptied itself into the Tiber. Part of this sewer, in length quite 1,020 feet, is still in existence, and after a lapse of 2,500 years, goes on fulfilling its original purpose. The sewer, which is nearly twenty feet wide, is covered by a vaulted roof of massive squares of tufa, in which an arch of travertine is inserted at intervals of 12 feet 2 inches. The original height was 10 feet 8 inches, but has been reduced to 6 feet 6 inches by the accumulation of filth and rubbish. The drainage system of Rome was considerably extended, especially by Agrippa in the Augustan age. The duty of keeping the sewers of Rome in repair fell originally to the censors. During the imperial age it was transferred to a special board, the curatures cloacarum. Citizens who wished to establish a connexion between their property and the city drains had to pay a.special tax to the State, called cloacarium.
HASTA	10.58%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Roman lance. In the earlier times of the army the four first classes in the Servian constitution, and in later times, the triarii, or hindmost rank, were armed with this weapon. (See LEGION.) At length, however, the pilum was introduced for the whole infantry of the legion. (See PILUM.) To deprive a soldier of his hasta was equivalent to degrading him to the rank of the velites, who were armed with javelins. A blunt hasta with a button at the end (hasta pilra) continued to be used in later times as a military decoration. The hasta indeed was employed in many symbolical connexions. The fetialis, for instance, hurled a blood-stained hasta into the enemy's territory as a token of declaration of war, and if a general devoted his life for his army he stood on a hasta while repeating the necessary formula. The hasta was also set up as a symbol of legal ownership when the censor farmed out the taxes, when state property, booty for instance, was sold; at private auctions (hence called subhastationes), and at the sittings of the court of the centumviri, which had to decide on questions of property.
HETAEIRAE	10.53%
A euphemism for courtesans carrying on their profession chiefly at Corinth and Athens. In the former place they were connected with the worship of Aphrodite; in the latter they were introduced by an ordinance of Solon, who intended thereby to obviate worse evils that imperilled the sanctity of the marriage-bond and the chastity of domestic life. The intercourse of unmarried men with hetoeroe was by no means considered immoral; in the case of married men it was disapproved by custom, which, after the Peloponesian War, became more and more lax in this as in other respects. The hetoeroe who were kept in special establishments and on whom the state levied a tax, were all female slaves; on the other hand, the women called hetoeroe in a narrower sense, who carried on their trade independently, were drawn chiefly from the ranks of foreigners and freedwomen. It was quite unexampled for any Athenian citizen's daughter to become a hetoera. The important position they assumed in the social life of Athens after the Peloponnesian War is easily gathered from the later Attic Comedy, as the plot of the pieces generally turns upon the adventures of a hetoera. As custom debarred all respectable women and girls from the society of men, the female element in the latter was represented exclusively by hetoeroe, many of whom became famous by possessing the mental culture from which the female citizens were debarred by their education and by their secluded life. Thus they were able to attract even men of eminence. Aspasia of Miletus was able to make her house at Athens the meeting-point of the most remarkable men of her day; among them even a Socrates and a Pericles, and the latter deserted his wife to marry her.
CENSUS	10.33%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 After the establishment of the constitution of Servius Tullius the number of Roman citizens was ascertained every five years (though not always with perfect regularity) to determine their legal liability to the payment of taxes and to military service. This process was called census. The census was originally taken by the kings; after the expulsion of the kings by the consuls; after 444 B.C. by special officers called censors (see CENSORES). The censors took the auspices on the night preceding the census; on the next day their herald summoned the people to the Campus Martius, where they had an official residence in the villa publica. Each tribe appeared successively before them, and its citizens were summoned individually according to the existing register. Each had to state on oath his age, his own name, those of his father, his wife, his children, his abode, and the amount of his property. The facts were embodied in lists by the censors' assistants. The census of the provinces was sent in by the provincial governors. There was a special commission for numbering the armies outside the Italian frontier. The censors, in putting up the new lists, took into consideration not only a man's property but his moral conduct (see CENSORES, p. 122a). The census was concluded with the solemn ceremony of reviewing the newly constituted army (lustrum). (See LUSTRUM.) The republican census continued to exist under the early Empire, but the last lustrum was held by Vespasian and Titus in A.D. 74. The provincial census, introduced by Augustus and maintained during the whole imperial period, had nothing to do with the Roman census, being only a means of ascertaining the taxable capacities of the provinces.