publican

publican [Lat.,=state employee], in ancient Rome, man who was employed by the state government under contract. As early as c.200 B.C. there was a class of men in Rome accustomed to undertaking contracts involving public works and tax collecting; the tax collectors made the most profit. The publicans were usually equites, or capitalists. In the Gospels—which showed the general detestation, particularly in Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine, in which the publicans were held—the publicans mentioned were tax collectors. From the 1st cent. A.D. the abuses of the publicans began to be corrected, and by the end of the 2d cent. the publicans as a group had disappeared.

In antiquity, publicans (Latin publicanus (singular); publicani (plural)) were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects. In addition, they served as tax collectors for the Republic (and later the Roman Empire), bidding on contracts (from the Senate in Rome) for the collection of various types of taxes. Importantly, this role as tax collectors was not emphasized until late into the history of the Republic (c. 1st century BC). The publicans were usually of the class of equites.

At the height of the Republic's era of provincial expansion (roughly the first and second centuries BC until the end of the Republic) the Roman tax farming system was very profitable for the publicani. The right to collect taxes for a particular region would be auctioned every few years for a value that (in theory) approximated the tax available for collection in that region. The payment to Rome was treated as a loan and the publicani would receive interest on their payment at the end of the collection period. In addition, any excess (over their bid) tax collected would be pure profit for the publicani. The principal risk to the publicani was that the tax collected would be less than the sum bid.

By New Testament times, publicans were seen chiefly as tax collectors by provincial peoples. It is in this sense that the term is used in Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. However, their role as public contractors, especially as regards building projects, was still significant.

With the rise of a much larger Imperial bureaucracy, this task of the publicans, as well as their overall importance, declined precipitously. Evidence for the existence of publicans extends as far back as the 3rd century BC, although it is generally assumed that they existed at still earlier times in Roman history. Knowledge of a tentative terminus post quem is taken from the histories of the 1st century AD Imperial historian Livy.

By the time of the Renaissance, the word "publican" meant a tavernkeeper (the licensed landlord of a public house), and by extension a slang term for a pimp.

In England in the late 12th century there existed a religious sect called the publicani. Among their beliefs was the view that procreation was a sin. This sect was thought heretical and was commonly persecuted in the 1180-1190s by Archbishop William of Rheims (reigned 1176-1202). This is mentioned in Banks and Binns' introduction to the Otia Imperialia, a 13th century work by Gervase of Tilbury.

See also

• Tax farming
• Matthew the Evangelist
• Zacchaeus

External links

• Publican article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Publicani article from UNRV.
• Publicani the book recent work of fiction

Notes and references