Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 2 - Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire

70 The Imperial Government

ThePtolemies,andtheRomansafterthem,heldmonopoliesofothervalu-
ables,^167 andifthereisnoevidenceofaroyalpearlmonopolyintheancient
world,thereisatleastaninstanceofonefromIndia.^168 Thethirditemisa
papyrus,datingtoa.d.139,^169 apetitiontotheepistratēgosfromaguardofa
customhouseatSocnopaiouNesos,accusingtwoofhissuperiorsofcheat-
ingtheFiscus(kyriakos logos)andaskingfortheirbookstobeexamined‘‘in
order to find out if the tolls in them went to the Fiscus.’’ It seems beyond
doubtthatthedocumentshowstollsbeingpaidtotheFiscus.^170
Thesethreecasescouldofcoursebeexplainedbytheassumptionthatthe
regularrevenuesofimperialprovinceswenttotheFiscus.Buttoacceptthat
wouldbetoaccepteitherthattheserevenuesbecamethepropertyoftheem-
perororthattheterm‘‘fiscus’’wassystematicallyambiguous.Itispreferable,
therefore,toadmitthatthesepassagescannotbereadilyfittedintothepat-
ternsuggestedhere;itisstillpossibletoclaimthatthatpattern,withwhich
most uses of ‘‘fiscus’’ accord, gives a true conception of how the financial
structureoftheEmpiredeveloped.
Moreover,evenif,asislikely,thelinesofdistinctionbetweenimperial
andpublicfundsdrawnherecometorequiresomemodification,itmustbe
recognized that the distinction between them did survive throughout the
entireperiodwithwhichweareconcerned.ForDio,writinginthefirsthalf
ofthethirdcentury,distinguishesclearlybetweentobasilikon(i.e.,theFiscus)
andto dēmosion(i.e., theaerarium).^171 A passage in his account of Augustus,
whichisoftenquotedasproofthatthedistinctionhadvanished,showsin

167. SeeP-WXVI,159–60,194–95.


168. P-WXVI,191.
     169.P. Amh.77Wilcken,Chrestomathie,no.277Sel. Pap.,no.282.


169. SoWallace(n.141),260–61.IthoughtearlierthatthementionoftheFiscusmight
     beconnectedwiththefactthattheguard’ssuperior,Polydenus,isreportedinthepapyrus
     (ll.20–21)tohaveenlistedtheaidofHeraclas,‘‘oneoftheswordbearersofthe[imperial]
     estate,’’inordertohavehimtaken‘‘totheofficeoftheprocuratoroftheimperialestates’’to
     bebeaten.ButProfessorH.C.Youtie,whohasverykindlydiscussedthepapyruswithme
     byletter,pointsoutthatHeraclasmighthavebeenbroughtinsimplyasanarmedthugand
     theofficeofthelocalprocuratorofimperialestatesusedasaconvenientplaceforthebeat-
     ing.IamalsoverygratefultoProfessorYoutieforprovidingmewithsomeotherpapyrus
     usesofφίσκοςdiscussedinthischapter.


170. See nn. 48, 145, 153, and cf. Dio 71, 33, 2 (273), and 79, 12, 2^2 (463).Though see
     n.152.Forthesurvivalofthedistinctioninthethirdcentury,seealsoDig.3,6,1,3Cod.
     Just.7,49,1;Dig.39,4,9,3Paulus,Sent.5,1a,4;CILVIII,17639AbbottandJohnson,
     no.152,‘‘...owedtothepeopleortothefiscus’’andcf.Cyprian,de opere et eleemosynis19,
     ‘‘atreasureentrustedtoGodcanneitherthestatesnatchnortheFiscusseize.’’