Editing Publicani (section)

==History==
At the height of the [[Roman Republic]]'s era of provincial expansion (roughly 146 BC until the end of the Republic in 27 BC) the Roman [[tax farming]] system was very profitable for the ''publicani''. The right to collect taxes for a particular region would be auctioned every few years for a value that (in theory) approximated the tax available for collection in that region. The payment to Rome was treated as a loan and the ''publicani'' would receive interest on their payment at the end of the collection period. In addition, any excess (over their bid) tax collected would be pure profit for the ''publicani''. The principal risk to the ''publicani'' was that the tax collected would be less than the sum bid.

In the Roman Republic, the distinction between politics and business was clear-cut. [[Roman Senate#Senate of the Roman Republic|Senators]] could not take part in the management of the ''societas publicanorum'' or other business activities, but they could be shareholders of the companies. Likewise, private contractors could not enter seats in the Senate. Consequently, the ''publicani'', as the most influential group in the order of the knights, became part of the power-balancing mechanism of ancient Rome.

Tax farming deals in newly acquired eastern provinces in Asia Minor proved to be a highly lucrative source of income for the companies, which placed ''publicani'' in competitive positions with the appointed local governors of the provinces. Also, the exclusion of the ''publicani'' from the Senate opened up positions for them in the special courts, allowing them to weigh the limits and practices of government power.{{sfn|Badian|1983}}

The actions of the ''publicani'' were fiercely criticised. They were accused of insurance fraud in delivering goods during the Punic wars, of excessive greed when collecting taxes in the provinces, of exceptionally cruel conduct towards slave labour working in the mines, and of fraudulent practices in trying to get rid of unprofitable public contracts. However, surviving literary sources are mainly based on accounts of senators, who were in a competitive position with the ''publicani''. Still, the overall operation of the private contractors seems to have supplied satisfactory results for the management of the Republic.

The degradation of the role of private contracting coincided with the beginning of the rule of the emperors, during which the oligarchic power of the Senate had to give way for the autocratic rule of the Caesars, and a more centralised public civil service system replaced private contractors in implementing the most important parts of public policy. However, the equestrian order, to which the ''publicani'' belonged, formed the backbone of the population from which civil servants were recruited. Throughout history, the ''publicani'', or, more precisely, their local henchmen, were probably best known from their minor local tax collecting duties in Roman provinces during the imperial era <ref>Silver, M., 2007. Fiscalism in the emergence and extinction of societates publicanorum. Pomoerium, 6, pp. 47–71.</ref>

By [[New Testament]] times, the provincial people came to see the publicans chiefly as tax collectors. It is in this sense that the term is used in [[Jesus|Jesus']] [[parable]] of the [[Pharisee and the Publican]]. However, their role as [[public contractor]]s, especially as regards building projects, was still significant.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}}
With the rise of a much larger Imperial bureaucracy, this task of the publicans, as well as their overall importance, declined precipitously. Evidence for the existence of publicans extends as far back as the 3rd century BC, although it is generally assumed{{by whom|date=November 2017}} that they existed at still earlier times in Roman history. Knowledge of a tentative ''[[terminus post quem]]'' is taken from the histories of the 1st century AD Imperial historian [[Livy]].