Note 669 — Chapter II · THE ROMAN EMPIRE UNDER ANASTASIUS: THE INHERITANCE OF JUSTINIAN

There were three grand treasuries at CP., viz., that of the Praefect of the East, of the Count Sacrarum Largitionum, and of the Count Rerum Privatarum (his local agents were called Rationales, but seem from the Notitia to have become extinct in the East), but the Praefect was the chief minister of finance and ruled both the returns and the disbursements; see Godefroy’s Notitia, ad calc.; Cod. Theod.; Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., ii, 27; Cassiodorus, Var. Epist., vi, 3, etc. The Rectors and the Curiae could levy local rates for public works, to which purpose a third of the revenue from the customs in each district and from national estates (mostly property of abolished temples) was regularly devoted; see Cod. Theod., XV, i, with Godefroy’s paratitlon and commentaries. The Emperor indulged his fancy in building out of the public funds or granted sums in the form of largess, as when Anastasius bestowed a considerable amount on the island of Rhodes to repair the damage done by an earthquake; Jn. Malala, xvi. There were some small taxes I have not noticed, such as the siliquaticum, pay for the army, by which each party to a sale gave a ½ siliqua (3d.). This was devised by Valentinian III (Novel., Theodos., xlviii; Do. Valent., xviii) and existed in the time of Cassiodorus (op. cit., iv, 19, etc.), but does not seem to have been adopted in the East.