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

The Fiscus in the First Two Centuries 59

ofreferringtoboththelex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus(theJulianlawregulat-
ingmarriagebetweenthesocialorders)andthelexPapiaPoppaea(whichlegal
sourcessometimesrefertojointlyasthelex Iulia et Papia).TheFiscus’claim
tobona caducaisfirstattestedinthereignofTiberius—‘‘thepropertyofthe
wealthyAemiliaMusawhodiedintestatewasclaimedforthefiscus’’^88 —and
thereafter was well established. In the second century Artemidorus could
use as a passing example the casewhere a man dies, ‘‘his goods have been
seizedbytheFiscus,’’andhiswifeislefttocarryonalegalbattlefortheir
recovery.^89 Theoriginofthisright,however,isnoteasytodetermine.The
prefacetothemainpapyruscopyoftheGnomon(CodeofRegulations)of
theIdiosLogos(thePrivateAccount),whichislargelyconcernedwiththe
Fiscus’claimstobona caduca,^90 beginsbyreferringtotheinstructions‘‘which
thedeifiedAugustusestablishedfortheadministrationoftheIdiosLogos’’
butdoesnotmentionhimspecificallyinanyofthelaterclauses.Strabode-
scribestheIdiosLogosastheofficial‘‘whoinvestigates[enquiresinto]the
propertiesthatarewithoutownersandthatoughttofalltoCaesar.’’^91 Itis
probablethataPtolemaicprecedentwastakenoverdirectly,for,althoughit
cannotbeformallyprovedthatthePtolemaicIdiosLogosreceived‘‘proper-
tiesthatarewithoutowners’’(adespota),itislikely,^92 andthereareindications
that the practice was known in the Seleucid territories also.^93 But exactly
how the Fiscus’ rights tobona caducaentered Roman legal practice outside
Egypt^94 isnotatallclear.Tacitussaysthatthelex Papia Poppaeawasbrought
in‘‘toenrichtheaerarium’’anddescribesitseffectswiththewords‘‘sothat...

reference to thelex Voconiais a puzzle in itself, since its provisions ought to have been
supersededbythoseoftheLexFalcidiaof40b.c.

88. Tac.,Ann.2,48,1.


89. Artemidorus,Oneirocritica4,56.


90. SeetheeditionbyS.Riccobono,Il Gnomon dell’Idios Logos(Palermo,1950),text(pp.
    31–32)paras.4,9,10,16,18,19,20,22,23,24,27,30,31,33,45,50,112,andcommentary(pp.
    95–96),andalsoR.Besnier,‘‘L’applicationdesloiscaducairesd’Augusted’aprèslegnomon
    del’idiologue,’’RIDA(Mélanges de VisscherI)2(1949):93.


91. Strabo797.ThisisconfirmedbyP. Oxy.1188(a.d.13),e.g.,ll.4,10,15–16.


92. SeeC.Préaux,L’économie royale des Lagides(Brussels,1939),409.


93. Seethe‘‘ExtractfromtheRegistryLawofSuccession’’onaDuraparchment,C.B.
    Welles,R.O.Fink,andJ.F.Gilliam,The Excavations at Dura-Europos,FinalReportV.1:The
    Parchments and Papyri(NewHaven,1959),no.12(pp.76–79).


94. TheoperationoftheprincipleinEgyptisillustratedbytheedictofTiberiusJulius
    Alexander(seen.48),ll.38–39,onabusesconcernedwithdelationofpropertiesduetothe
    IdiosLogos.NotealsoArchiv für Papyrusforschung3,61,ajudgementbytheIdiologosgiven
    on22Nov.136,inwhichbona vacantiaaretaken‘‘tothekyriakos logos.’’