Consistent with Roman practices
Submitted by Jimf3 on January 06 2001 18:03:54
In reply to Responses submitted by Ford Prefect on January 06 2001 16:01:54
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The taking of a nose count for tax purposes was quite consistent with Roman practices of the time, btw. The Roman Senate, in consultation with the elected magistrates of the year, would decide how much tax a province was responsible for paying. Then the tax collection responsibility would be farmed out to publicans, private businessmen who worked as part of organized firms with the cooperation of provincial governors to raise money. They would frequently negotiate with the locals to decide what fair amounts ought to be charged and a count was ocassionally part of the process. The kick is that the publican firms could collect as much as they could get. Whatever was left over after paying the Senate was their profit. Many people make the mistake of thinking that the head count at the time of Jesus' birth was part of the decennial Roman census. This is a natural mistake but a real one - non-Romans were never part of the census. Only Roman citizens were counted in that process - for the purpose not of taxation but for assigning citizens to political and social classes. The "census" referred to in the Bible was most likely a result of negotiation between the provincial governor and the publicans. Promagistrates who governed provinces were theoretically supposed to look after the interests of their provinces - to protect them from the publican firms and make sure the publicans didn't get over zealous. Imagine the corruption inherent, especially considering that the senatorial class who were the people who became governors lusted after provincial appointments because they could use them to get rich. ;-) There were two distinctly competing interests - the magistrates who were not allowed to make money in business and the publicans who were theoretically lower on the social ladder but often far wealthier and sometimes more powerful than the senatorial class magistrates. Julius Caesar made a name for himself early in his career, btw, for championing tax reform in Asia Minor and trying to reign in the corruption of publican tax farmers. He helped pass legislation to actually mandate fair collection procedures and codify fair profit margins for the publicans. This did not make him the golden boy of the business class. But none of his legislation mandated counting anyone. The count in Judea would have been done as a practical matter among the concerned parties. There was probably a fair amount of bickering going on concerning whether the publicans were following the Lex Julia regarding taxation and somebody suggested a nose count as part of a compromise. Jim |
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