Your Life as a Roman Tax Collector

You are a Roman tax collector. Rome pays you nothing: your company promised Rome a fixed sum for the province of Asia, and you keep whatever you collect above it. Follow one typical knight, Marcus, from about 92 to 48 BC, through a massacre, a war bill, a debt one ancient writer says grew sixfold, a bailout, and the day Rome took the job away. Marcus is a typical tax collector, not a real person. Every event and number around him comes from a named ancient writer or a modern scholar, listed below. Chapters 0:00 Rome pays you nothing 0:43 A piece of a province 2:17 The squeeze 4:03 The thirtieth day (88 BC) 5:06 The bill 6:31 The cap 7:03 The bailout 8:05 News from Cyprus 10:17 The end of the tithe (48 BC) 10:45 Epilogue: the rules on the wall How the money is converted Old money is given in its own coin, then in days of a labourer's pay: 1 denarius = about a day's pay (Matthew 20:2; Tacitus 1.17). 1 talent = 6,000 drachmas, and a drachma is close enough to a denarius (Smith), so 1 talent = about 6,000 days' pay. Errors run both ways: the wage step errs low (many earned less, so more days), and a talent could be worth about 15% more (Attic) or 25% less (Asia's cistophoric coins); the writers don't say which. These are not modern dollars. Notes on the evidence Ancient numbers are writers' claims, not measurements. No source gives the Asia contract's value, a company's profit or what a man like Marcus earned. The sixfold debt (20,000 to 120,000 talents, after paying twice) is Plutarch's account alone. Sulla's bill is one bill: Appian gives the formula, Plutarch the total. 88 BC: ancient writers claimed 80,000 (Memnon, Valerius Maximus) or 150,000 (Plutarch) killed. Modern historians such as J. G. F. Hind (Cambridge Ancient History IX) consider the figures probably exaggerated; we cite this second-hand, via Wikipedia's "Asiatic Vespers". The season of 88 BC is disputed. Gaius Gracchus's Asia law is dated 123 BC (some scholars say 122). Rutilius's conviction was in 93 or 92 BC. The 218 BC law moving state contracts to the knights is Ulrike Malmendier's reading of the lex Claudia. Lucullus's reforms are dated about 71-70 BC; the lex Gabinia 68 or 67 BC. Sicilian wheat prices are a prosecutor's figures (Cicero against Verres), from another province some 20 years after Marcus arrives. Polybius's inn is an extreme low. A legionary's 225 denarii a year is derived from Tacitus. Caesar's one-third rebate (59 BC): Suetonius says it went to the companies; Appian frames a one-third relief as help for the Asians. The 48% loan (Salamis, Cyprus, 50 BC) was a loan by Brutus's agents, not tax collecting. The "publicans" of the Gospels were small local toll men, not the Roman companies (Malmendier). Sources (search the titles) Ulrike Malmendier, "Roman Shares", The Origins of Value (OUP, 2005); "Publicani", Encyclopedia of Ancient History Cicero, Letters to Atticus 1.17, 5.21, 6.1, trans. E. Shuckburgh; On Pompey's Command, Against Verres, For Roscius the Actor, trans. C. D. Yonge Plutarch, Lucullus, Sulla, Pompey, trans. B. Perrin (Loeb) Appian, Mithridatic Wars, Civil Wars, trans. H. White Polybius, Histories, trans. W. R. Paton (Loeb) Livy, History of Rome 45.18 (McDevitte); Periochae 58, 70 Tacitus, Annals, trans. J. Jackson (Loeb) Suetonius, Julius, trans. J. C. Rolfe (Loeb) Cassius Dio, Roman History 42, trans. E. Cary (Loeb) Memnon, History of Heracleia, trans. A. Smith Matthew, Mark and Luke, English Standard Version W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1875); Encyclopedia Americana (1920), "Talent" Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Gaius Sempronius Gracchus" Ostia-antica.org, "Quadragesima Portuum Asiae" Wikipedia, "Asiatic Vespers", "Denarius", "Attic talent" Image credits Photo: Wilfredor, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Photo: Eric Gaba – Wikimedia Commons user: Sting, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped, recoloured) Photo: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. (cngcoins.com), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped, recoloured) Photo: Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped, recoloured) Photo: Zunkir, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped, recoloured) Edited photos are shared under the same licences. Cartoon illustrations are made for this channel with AI image tools; the narration is a synthetic voice cloned, with permission, from a real person. #CostOfLiving #History #AncientRome