PUBLICANS

(Lat.public an i.) The farmers of the public revenue of Rome. They formed two distinct cla es; the farmers-general of the revenues, who were regarded as belonging to one of the most honourable grades of citizens, and deputies or under publicans of an inferior caste, whose reputation was on a par with that of the most degraded citizens. Hence, in the New Testament, the riXoDvai, a word rendered publicans by the Latin translators, are almost always placed in juxtaposition with sinners. (See Milman's Hist, of Christianity.) This term was also applied as a nickname to the Albigenses, which see. PUBLIC SAFETY, [s. 1009]