FISCUS

the imperial treasury. Under the republic the public treasury was called Aerarium . [ Aerarium . ] On the establishment of the imperial power, there was a division of the provinces between the senate, as the representative of the old republic, and the Caesar or emperor; and there was consequently a division of the most important branches of public income and expenditure. The property of the senate retained the name of Aerarium , and that of the Caesar, as such, received the name of Fiscus . The private property of the Caesar ( res privata principis, ratio Caesar is ) was quite distinct from that of the fisc us. The word fisc us signified a wicker-basket, or pannier, in which the Romans were accustomed to keep and carry about large sums of money; and hence fisc us came to signify any person’s treasure or money chest. The importance of the imperial fisc us soon led to the practice of appropriating the name to that property which the Caesar claimed as Caesar, and the word fisc us, without any adjunct, was used in this sense. Ultimately the word came to signify generally the property of the state, the Caesar having concentrated in himself all the sovereign power, and thus the word fisc us finally had the same signification as aerarium in the republican period. Various officers, as Pro curat ores, Advocati, Patroni, and Praefect i, were employed in the administration of the fisc us.