The aerarii (from Lat. aes, "bronze" or "money" in its subsidiary sense of "poll tax") were a class of Roman citizens not included in the thirty tribes of Servius Tullius, and subject to a poll-tax arbitrarily fixed by the censor. They were:
The inhabitants of conquered towns which had been deprived of local self-government, who possessed the jus conubii (right of legal marriage) and jus commercii (right to engage in lawful business), but no political rights. Caere is said to have been the first example of this (353 BC). Hence the expression "in tabulas Caeritum referre" came to mean " to degrade to the status of an aerarius."
Full citizens subjected to civil degradation (infamia) as the result of following certain professions (primarily the performing arts), of dishonourable acts in private life (for instance stuprum) or of conviction for certain crimes.
Persons "branded" (stigmatized by receiving a nota, essentially a "black mark") by the censor.[1]
Those who were thus excluded from the tribes and centuries had no vote were incapable of filling Roman magistracies, and could not serve in the army. According to Theodore Mommsen, the aerarii were originally the non-assidui (non-holders of land), excluded from the tribes, the comitia and the army. By a reform of the censor Appius Claudius Caecus in 312 BC these non-assidui were admitted into the tribes, and the aerarii as such disappeared. But in 304, Fabius Rullianus limited them to the four city tribes, and from that time the term meant a man degraded from a higher (rural) to a lower (urban) tribe, but not deprived of the right of voting or of serving in the army.[1]
The expressions tribu movere and aerarium facere, regarded by Mommsen as identical in meaning ("to degrade from a higher tribe to a lower"), are explained by Greenidge the first as relegation from a higher to a lower tribe or total exclusion from the tribes, the second as exclusion from the centuries. Other views of the original aerarii are that they were: artisans and freedmen (Niebuhr); inhabitants of towns united with Rome by a hospitium publicum, who had become domiciled on Roman territory (Lange); only a class of degraded citizens, including neither the cives sine suffragio nor the artisans (according to Johan Nicolai Madvig); identical with the capite censi of the Servian constitution (Belot, Greenidge).[1]
^ abcOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aerarii". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 259.
The aerarii (from Lat. aes, "bronze" or "money" in its subsidiary sense of "poll tax") were a class of Roman citizens not included in the thirty tribes...
two praefecti aerarii, chosen annually by the Senate from ex-praetors. In AD 23, these were replaced by two praetors (praetores aerarii or ad aerarium)...
Vigiles (firemen and police). Praefectus aerarii: nobles appointed guardians of the state treasury. Praefectus aerarii militaris: prefect of the military treasury...
Aurelia split the juries into three groups of senators, equites, and tribuni aerarii. The quaestiones were a core part of Roman public law from their introduction...
had involved socially disruptive confiscation of property. The praefecti aerarii militaris (singular praefectus) were the three prefects who oversaw the...
the permanent courts jury pools were also altered to remove the tribuni aerarii, leaving only the equestrians and senators. He also took further administrative...
plebis) 93 Praetor 94–96 Prefect of the military treasury (praefectus aerarii militaris) 98–100 Prefect of the treasury of Saturn (praefectus aerari...
of equites, a third by tribuni aerarii. each category was to have 300 members, for a total or 900. The tribuni aerarii were citizens with a census equal...
: xiv. 12 : vi. 35, 36, 38, 42, vii. 1, 2 The exact nature of the Tribuni Aerarii, or Tribunes of the Treasury is shrouded in mystery. Originally they seem...
included a curator tribuum, who served as the head of the tribe, and tribuni aerarii, or tribunes of the treasury, whose responsibility was for the tribe's...
registered by name within thirty days after their birth with the Praefectus Aerarii Saturni (Capitol. M. Ant. c9; compare Satire IX of Juvenal, line 84). The...
Memmius Regulus (consul) Nero Nerva (lawyer) Obultronius Sabinus (quaestor aerarii) Pallas (a slave, for a while ... favourite of Claudius emperor) Pomponius...
along tribal lines. The tribes were originally presided over by tribuni aerarii (tribunes of the public treasury) who had the tribal register, collected...
distributed the jury pool between senators, equestrians, and the tribuni aerarii, the anti-graft provisions of then-existing laws applied only to senators...
In the end, the jury – composed of senators, equites, and the tribuni aerarii – divided: the senators voted for conviction, the latter two panels for...
to record the votes of the jury panels (senators, equites, and tribuni aerarii) separately, which "imposed a degree of indirect accountability without...
Obultronius Sabinus was quaestor aerarii in 56 or 57 AD: the quaestor aerarii fulfilled the role of paymaster militaria. It is accounted to by the writer...
the usual salary), plebeian tribune, praetor, praefectus aerarii Saturni, and praefectus aerarii militaris, before assuming the high annual office of Roman...
in three equal parts by senators, equites equo publico, and the tribuni aerarii who were also equites equo suo. During the imperial period, the public...
Cotta Praetor Juries should be chosen from senators, equites and tribuni aerarii. Lex Plautia de reditu lepidanorum 70 BC Plautius Tribune of the plebs...
religious cult as according to the treaties without competing with the city-aerarii. Consequently, they had no share in the endowment (Dotation) of 1830. In...
composition, once again opening the juries up to Senators, Equites and tribuni aerarii as a check on such over-lenient juries. Cicero devoted a significant amount...
career in public service, as legate of the Legio VII Gemina, praefectus aerarii militaris, and consul. Lucius Sollius Calendio, buried at Dea Augusta Vocontiorum...
only piecemeal. The earliest office attested for him is prefect of the aerarii Saturnii as the colleague of Publicius Certus, which he would have held...
187 and 189. Then from around 190 to 192, Terentianus was a praefectus aerarii militaris (or official responsible for the military treasury) under the...
panels of the quaestiones perpetuae (senators, equestrians, and tribuni aerarii) reported their votes separately. However, T R S Broughton also notes that...
who physically collected tributum, but it is believed that the tribuni aerarii were responsible for its collection. Recent attempts to reconstruct the...
reign of Domitian, resulting in Helvidius' death. He was made praefectus aerarii, and promised the consulship, but was accused by Pliny the Younger following...
Global Information