The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
and in 6 A.D.., at the time of a rebellion in Dalmatia, Augustus was unable to meet the claims of the soldiers by ordinary means, and was driven to instituting an aerarium militare, with a capital of 170,000,000 sesterces (about 1,360,000). It was administered by three praefecti, chosen by lot, for three years, from the praetorian senators. The sources of revenue on which the military treasury was to depend, were a five per cent, tax on inheritances, and a one per cent, impost on auctions.
Rome and Italy were exempted from the military command of the Imperator; and the army was distributed in the provinces and on the frontiers. But there were two exceptions : the Praetorian guards (along with the City guards and the Watchmen) and the fleet.
The institution of a body-guard (cohors praetoria) for the imperator had existed under the Republic, and had been further developed under the triumvirate. Augustus organized it anew. After his victory both his own guards and those of his defeated rival Antonius were at his disposal, and out of these troops he formed a company of nine cohorts, each consisting of 1000 men. Thus the permanent praetorian guard under the Empire stood in the same relation to the Imperator, in which the temporary cohors praetoria stood to an imperator under the Republic. The pay of the praetorian soldier was fixed at double that of the legionary, his rime of service was fixed (5 A.D.) at sixteen years; and the command was ultimately placed in the hands of two praetorian prefects (2 B.C.) of equestrian rank. In later times this office became the most important in the state; but even at first a praetorian prefect had great influence. The Emperor's personal safety depended on his loyalty, and the appointment of two prefects by Augustus, was probably a device for lessening the chances of treachery. Only a small division of the praetorian troops were permitted to have their station within Rome; the rest were quartered in the neighbourhood. The irregularity of a standing military force posted in Italy, was to some extent rendered less unwelcome by the rule that only Italians and "Italians" was at first interpreted in its old sense, so as to exclude dwellers in Gallia Cisalpina could enter the service.
Besides the Praetorian cohorts, there were three Urban cohorts (cohortes urbanae) stationed at Rome. During the absence of the Emperor, they were under the command of the prefect of the city. The cohortes vigilum have already been mentioned.
Augustus created an imperial fleet, which was called, though perhaps not in his own day, the classis praetoria. Under the Republic the command of the naval forces had always devolved upon the commander of the legions, and consequently no fleets could be stationed in Italian ports, as Italy was exempt from the imperium. Hence the Tuscan and Adriatic seas were infested by pirates. The war with Sextus Pompeius had turned the special attention of Augustus to the fleet, and he saw his way to separating the navy from the army. Two fleets were permanently stationed in Italy; one, to guard over the eastern waters, at Ravenna, and the second, to control the southern seas, at Misenum. They formed the guard of the Emperor, and at first were manned by his slaves. The commanders, under the early Empire, were praefecti, who were sometimes freedmen. Augustus also stationed a squadron of lesser magnitude at Forum Julium; but this was removed when the province of Narbonensis was transferred to the senate (22 B.C.). These fleets were composed of the regular ships of war with three benches of oars, triremes, and of the lighter Liburnian biremes. But the heavier and larger kind afterwards fell into disuse, and liburna came to be the general word for a warship.
Chapter VI.
Provincial Administration Under Augustus — The Western Provinces
SECT. I. — GENERAL ORGANIZATION OF THE PROVINCES
When Augustus founded the Empire, the dominion of Rome stretched from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, from the German Ocean to the borders of Ethiopia. The lands which made up this empire had by no means the same political status. Rome, the mother and mistress of the Empire, stood by herself. She was the centre, to which all the rest looked up. Next her, sharing in many respects her privileged position, was Italy. Outside this inner circle came the directly subject lands and communities, which were strictly under the sway (in dicione) of the Roman people. Outside these again came the lands and communities which, while really under the sovranty of Rome, preserved their independence and were not called subjects, but federate states and allies. And in each of these circles there were various kinds and subdivisions, according to the mode of their administration or the limits imposed on their self-government. Thus the subjects of the Roman Empire were almost as heterogeneous in their political relations to their mistress as in race and language. It is to be observed that by ‘Roman Empire’, we mean more than the Romans in strict speech meant by imperium Romanum. We mean not only the provinces, but the independent allied states and client kingdoms, in which the people were not the subjects of the Roman people and the land was not the property of the Roman state. These federate and associated states were regarded legally as outside the Roman fines, although the foedus or alliance really meant that they were under the sovranty of Rome and the continuation of their autonomy depended solely on her will. There was no proper word in Latin to express the geographical circle which included both the direct and the indirect subjects. Perhaps the nearest expression wasorbis terrarum, “the world”, which often seems equivalent to “the Empire”. For Roman law regarded all territory, which was not either Roman or belonging to someone whose ownership Rome recognized, as the property of no man,—outside the world.
The chief mark of distinction between the autonomous, and not autonomous communities was that the former taxed themselves, whereas the latter were taxed by Rome. In both cases there were exceptions, but this was the general rule. And the land of the provincial communities which were not autonomous belonged to Rome, whereas the land of the autonomous states was not Roman. Originally, after the conquest of her earliest provinces, Rome had not appropriated the land; but this was a theoretic mistake which she afterwards corrected when C. Gracchus organized Asia. Henceforward all provincial territory was regarded as in the ownership of the Roman people. The Roman people might let the land anew to the former possessors at a fixed rent, and in most cases this was done. Thus the principle was that the provincial subjects occupied as tenants the lands which they or their ancestors once owned. This rent wag called tributum, or stipendium.
(a). The greater number of provincial communities in the time of Augustus were civitate stipendiariae. The legal condition of these subjects was that of peregrini dediticii, but they were not called by this name. They were under the control of the governor of the province to which they belonged.
(b). Throughout the provinces there was a multitude of cities which possessed full Roman citizenship, and their number was continually increasing. But although, as far as personal rights were concerned, these cities were on a level with the cities of Italy, they were worse off in two particulars. They were obliged to pay tribute. The reason of this anomaly was the theoretic principle that provincial territory could not be alienated by its owner, the Roman people. The ager publicus populi Romani beyond the sea could not become ager privatus ex iure Quiritium. In other words, a provincial of Narbo, although a Roman citizen, could not be a quiritary possessor of land in the Narbonese territory. He could only hold land of the Roman people, and must therefore pay rent for it. In the case, however, of some favored communities, this principle was departed from as early as the time of Augustus. The privilege took one of two forms, either a grant of immunity from tribute or the bestowal of ius Italicum. The latter form, which was the more common, placed the territory of the community which received it in the same position as the territory of Italy, and made it capable of quiritary ownership. The provincial cities which possessed ius Italicum marked their position by the external sign of a statue of a naked Silenus with a wine-skin on his shoulder, which was called Marsyas. This custom was imitated from the Marsyas which stood in the Roman Forum, as a symbol of the capital city. Besides being tributary, the provincial communities of Roman citizens were, like the peregrine communities, subject to the interference of the Roman governor.
It is to be observed that these communities were either coloniaeor municipia. In the course of Italian history the word municipiumhad completely changed its meaning. Originally it was applied to a community possessing ius Latinum, and also to the civitas