Note 214 — Chapter VIII · THE NEW CONSTITUTION, B.C. 30-23

This word—one of the financial terms borrowed from Sicily (lit. “a basket”)—was perhaps not commonly used in the restricted sense in the time of Augustus, though the thing existed. Into the emperor’s fisc went the revenues of the imperial provinces; but the balance in the case of most was not large. Cicero indeed (pro lege Manil, § 14) says that none of the provinces except Asia did much more than pay its expenses. This was probably an exaggeration, but not a very great one.