I take good care that they do not oppress any one."[1]
The revenue of the local exchequers came partly from lands which were the property of the subject republics. We find an impudent request from Cælius (to which of course Cicero did not listen for a moment) on behalf of a friend who farmed some such land, and who wished not to be obliged to pay his rent.[2] This source of revenue, however, seems barely to have sufficed for the ordinary local expenses. The sums which the communities had to pay in bribes to the Roman governor were raised by a direct tax on land and income, called "tributum." Sometimes they were obliged to anticipate their revenue, by selling the right to collect these rates for a lump sum to a tax-farmer, and then they were driven to impose on themselves a fresh contribution, which Cicero characterises to Appius[3] as "that most oppressive burden, which you know full well, of the poll-tax and the door-tax." All such taxes were levied by the authority of the local senates and magistrates, though of course the Roman governor could practically compel their imposition.[4]
To avoid these extremities, Cicero was anxious that his subjects should not involve themselves in unnecessary expenses, and on this ground he ordered that they should not without his permission vote sums for complimentary embassies to Rome in laud-
