List of Roman taxes

This is a list of the taxes levied by ancient Rome.

Land

Tributum soli, the tax on land.

Trade

Collatio lustralis, was a tax on anyone who makes a product, or provides a service, with the exception of physicians, teachers, and farmers.^[1]
Portoria, was a 2.5% customs tax. It was higher in the Near East.^[2]
Quadragesima Galliarum, was a 2.5% customs tax based in Lugdunum.^[3]

Military

Aes equestre was a tax on orphans (orbi) and widows to pay for the horses of the equus publicus.^[4]
Aes hordearium was a tax on orphans (orbi) and widows or single women (viduae), it was levied to pay for the upkeep of the horses of the equus publicus.^[5]^[6]

Marriage

Aes uxorium was a tax on unmarried men and women who could bear children.^[7]

Inheritance

Vicesima hereditatium was a 5% inheritance tax, close relatives were exempt from paying it.^[8]

Sales

Centesima rerum venalium was a tax on goods sold at auction, under Augustus it was a 1% tax, however under Tiberius it was only a 0.5% tax.^[2]

Religious

Fiscus Judaicus was an additional tax for an extra two denarii, it was applied to the Jews in the Roman empire.^[9]

Poll tax

Tributum capitis was a tax on citizens, which only towns with the Jus Italicum were exempt from it.^[10]

Slave taxes

Vicesima libertatis was a tax on owners who freed slaves, the owner would have to pay 5% of the value of the slave.^[2]
Quinta et vicesima venalium mancipiorum was a 4% tax on selling slaves.^[2]
A customs tax on a slave of one and a half denarii is recorded in a third-century tariff list from Zarai.^[11]

State lands

Vectigal was a tax on occupiers of Roman state land (ager publicus).^[2]

References

^ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed. 1970. p. 263
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dilke, O.A.W. (1987). Mathematics and measurement (3rd impression. ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 51. ISBN 9780520060722.
^ Drinkwater, John (2014), Roman Gaul: The Three Provinces, 58 BC-AD 260, p. 100, ISBN 9781317750741
^ Livy (l.c.)
^ Liv. I.43
^ Cic. de Rep. II.20.
^ Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ Jane F. Gardner, "Nearest and Dearest: Liability to Inheritance Tax in Roman Families," in Childhood, Class and Kin in the Roman World pp. 205, 213.
^ Schäfer (1998), pp. 113–114
^ Digest 50, tit.15
^ Keith R. Bradley. "Apuleius and the sub-Saharan slave trade". Apuleius and Antonine Rome: Historical Essays. p. 177.