Why Rome's Tax Collectors Were the Most Hated Men Alive

Rome didn't collect taxes. It auctioned the right to collect them, to private companies, at a profit. Everything that went wrong next was the business model. This is the money story of the publicani, the tax companies of the Roman world: the auction where whole provinces went under the hammer, the toolkit of the collectors (the generous guess, the bucket that lied, the loan that never ended), the honest general the system destroyed, the governor whose trial became the most famous prosecution in Roman history, the emperor who taxed urine and won the argument forever, and the one afternoon the senate nearly abolished taxes, and settled for the only reform that actually worked. Follow the money through the greatest empire in history. New episodes weekly. Chapters: 0:00 The knock 1:26 The auction 3:36 Who actually paid 5:17 The toolkit 8:43 The general who said no 10:06 The trial of the century 11:38 Money doesn't stink 13:13 The day Rome almost abolished taxes 15:21 The long goodbye 17:07 The mirror 18:22 Your strangest tax?