Note 1110 — Chapter IV · THE MAGISTRACY (continued 2)
Reading edition
The jurists inform us that this is the true sense of publicanus; the conductores are only publicanorum loco (Dig. 39, 4, 12, 13). In common parlance, however, both are publicani, and this usage is etymologically justifiable, since they are both concerned with a publicum, a word which denotes state revenue and state service (Dig. 39, 4, 1; Tac. Ann. xiii. 51; Liv. xxiii. 49, 1).