PORTŌRĬUM

a branch of the regular revenues of the Roman state, consisting of the duties paid on imported and exported goods. A portorium, or duty upon imported goods, appears to have been paid at a very early period, for it is said that Valerius Publicola exempted the plebes from the port or i a at the time when the republic was threatened with an invasion by Porsena. The time of its introduction is uncertain; but the abolition of it, ascribed to Publicola, can only have been a temporary measure; and as the expenditure of the republic increased, new port or i a must have been introduced. In conquered places, and in the provinces, the import and export duties, which had been paid there before, were generally not only retained, but increased, and appropriated to the aerarium. Sicily, and above all, Asia, furnished to the Roman treasury large sums, which were raised as port or i a. In B.C. 60 all the port or i a in the ports of Italy were done away with by a Lex Caecilia, but were restored by Julius Caesar and the subsequent emperors. Respecting the amount of the import or export duties we have but little information. In the time of Cicero the portorium in the ports of Sicily was one-twentieth ( vicesima ) of the value of taxable articles; and it is probable that this was the average sum raised in all the other provinces. In the times of the emperors the ordinary rate of the portorium appears to have been the fortieth part ( quad rage sima ) of the value of imported goods; and at a later period the exorbitant sum of one-eighth ( octava ) is mentioned. The portorium was, like all other vectigalia, farmed out by the censors to the public an i, who collected it through the port i to res . [ Vectigalia ; Public an i .]