Organizace římské finanční správy za principátu

The most important pillar of the imperial power during the Principate were apart from the army and the bureaucracy, the finances. During the whole Principate there existed side by side three branches of the financial administration. The first was aerarium, the former republican state treasury, which as the result of withdrawings of incomes gradually lost importance and finally became a mere treasury of the City of Rome, which embodied the “partnership” of the senate and of the emperor. Formally it was independent but in fact even though indirectly, it was managed by the emperor. Fiscus and patrimonium, later ratio (res) privata, were imperial treasuries. The position of both chiefs of these imperial central financial departments, who belonged to the palatine officers, was very specific. Though they did not directly engage in political affairs, they had great power as the chiefs of the state or of the emperor’s personal treasuries. The most important branch – the fiscus came, as well as the patrimonium, into being already under Augustus. At the beginning it was run similarly as the property of other Roman nobiles by the emperor’s slaves. In the first period of the Principate it has the character of the exclusive imperial treasury, which included all financial funds that the princeps was in charge of. Only after the separation of the patrimonium by Claudius it becomes the exclusive treasury that is administered by the emperor himself by the virtue of the title Head of the State and the fiscus maintained this character throughout the whole Principate. Also in this period its administration is firmly organized and its organization structure formed. Freedmen are placed at the head of the office of the fiscus bearing the title a rationibus. The whole office is called after them a rationibus. The reign of the Flavians was an important milestone in the development of the fiscus. The building of the fiscus, both as of a body and of the branch of the financial administration is completed by now and forms a uniform complex of the imperial state finances. At the end of the first century A. D. the management of this office is passed over to the equites (the first reliably referred to are Cn. Pompeius Homullus and L. Vibius Lentulus in Trajanʼs time). Fiscus as the financial centre of the Roman Empire performed at the same time the functions of the State Bank and also of the Ministry of Finance. It managed to keep its influence almost throughout the whole Principate. There was no difference whether the chief was a freedman or an eques and it was not at all important if he was called in turn a rationibus, procurator a rationibus, rationalis summae rei or magister summae rei. His position was always determined (and that also explains many exemptions from the cursus honorum) by the fact that he controlled the whole economic potential of the Roman Empire, and as the direct representative of the emperor in this field, he administered and managed it. The second branch was formed by the patrimonium which was administered at the beginning as a part of the fiscus and from the time of Claudius it formed an independent branch of the financial administration. At first it represented the emperor’s personal property or more exactly of the ruling dynasty and it maintained this character during the whole reign of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. As the property substance of the patrimonium passes on after the year 68–69 A.D. to other emperors, it acquires with the coming of the Flavians the character of crown property (at that time we can for the first time see the equites as the chiefs of the office a patrimonio) and as such it is considered until the Severians when it is consumed by ratio privata. But the origin of ratio privata goes back to the time of the rule of Antoninus Pius when a part of the African estates was excluded as a donation for Faustina. The reason for this change was that in the end of the second century A.D. the character of patrimonium began to draw nearer to the fiscus and the emperor could not dispose of it as freely as before. This fact provoked the need to form funds that would be beyond any control, for free use for totally private purposes. Septimius Severus did not constitute ratio privata, he only established a central office and finished forming its structure. It is true that ratio privata takes over the function of the patrimonium and to a certain point it replaces it, but patrimonium does not disappear immediately after its establishment. They continue to exist side by side for a certain time henceforth (only after Maximinus Thrax they disappear from sources completely) though patrimonium gradually loses importance. Under the Severians there exist next to each other three independent branches: fiscus, patrimonium and ratio privata. It is the time of co-existence of the new ratio privata and of the fading out of the patrimonium. Each is managed by independent officers. After the extinction of the office of the patrimonium its territorial structure was not abolished but only transferred under ratio privata, which at the beginning had the same character as patrimonium in the first decades of the Principáte. We cannot define when ratio privata develops the character of the crown properties as exactly as it is the case with the patrimonium, but with all certainty it is very soon after its origin during the Civil Wars in the 3rd century A.D. At this time apart from ratio privata there appears a complex of estates called domus divina, which came into being owing to the same reasons as ratio privata some time earlier. It again has the character of private property but now it is not connected with the imperial family, but with each emperor individually. The difference between ratio privata and domus divina is that the emperor can dispose with the latter much more freely. The distinction between aerarium, fiscus, patrimonium or ratio privata is very important especially in the administrative structure and the organization of the administration of property. The emperors, as the highest authorities, freely disposed of all financial sources of the Roman Empire according to necessity or their own liking.