PUBLICA'NI. The publicani were a body of persons in the Boman state who farmed the public revenues (vcctigalia), from which circum stance apparently their name is derived. (" I'ublicaoi autem dicuntur qul publics vectigalia habent conducta,” 'Dig./ 39, tit. 4, s. 12.) They were numerous as early as the 6th century of the republic, and they continued to exist under the emperors. The publican formed various societies or partnerships, which had a corporate character. Each socictas had a magister, or chief manager, at Rome, and a deputy magister (promagistro), with numerous associates and assistants, in the provinces. [Paosets.] The revenues, which were chiefly leased to the pnblicani, were tolls, harbour duties, and the scripture, or the tax that was paid for the use of the public pasture-lands. The publieani had their under-lessees (portitores, TeAc7mas, Luke v. 27, 29) and col lectors. Numerous slaves were also employed by them in collecting the taxes ; and this body of men was comprehended under the term of a familia publicanorum. In our translation of the New Testament these inferior officers are called " publicans," and are mentioned together with "sinners," a distinction to which they might be partly entitled for their occasional oppressive conduct, and partly to the general dislike of all the world to tax-collectors. It appears that
Matthew, who was a Jew, was a publican (Matt. ix. 9), the only civil employment held by a Jew under the Romans.
The publicani undertook to pay fixed sums for the taxes of a par ticular district or place. The contract was often made by a single person on behalf of himself and others. It was the business of the censors to let the taxes. The publicani gave security to the state for the due performance of their contract ; and their property, as well as that of their sureties, was liable to the amount of their obligations.
Among the remedies which the publicani had against those who were bound to pay vectigal, was the pignoris celiac', which seems to have been a kind of distress (Gains, iv. 23) ; but after the old forms of action were changed, it was not usual actually to seize the property, but a fiction was introduced into the formula, by virtue of which the person who owed the vectigal might be condemned in a sum of money equal in amount to what he must have paid in order to redeem his property if it had been seized.