| EDICT
OF CARACALLA ON FINANCIAL MATTERS ( AD 216 ) |
( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, p. 228, n. 282 ). |
| This
edict, on a bronze plaque reported in 1946, grants a remission of taxes
and pending fiscal claims at Banasa in Morocco. Apparently the people
of the City were expected, although it is not expressly stated, to provide
in return, elephants for the court from the adjacent forests (Guey,
REA 49 [1947] 248). |
ENGLISH TRANSLATION. |
Emperor
Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius Augustus Parthicus Maximus Britannicus
Maximus Germanicus Maximus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician
power for the nineteenth time, saluted imperator for the third time,
consul for the fourth time, father of the fatherland, proconsul, proclaims : In rewarding your zeal and loyalty I remit whatever debts you owe the fisc in grain or money, also the claims in pending suits except those where judgment has been given and no appeal has been made : more than this, I proclaim that my grace is extended also to those suits in which proof can be furnished that an appeal has been entered, even if it has not yet been granted, since I am confident that you will reward my indulgence with zeal when you have acquired credit with me for this favor, not only by the service of brave men of villages and of provinces which deserve well of the State, men who are most highly regarded in every rank of civil and of military posts, but also by contributing from your forests which abound in celestial beasts. As for the future ; I expect that your annual taxes in grain or in money will be paid more promptly on this account, when you recall that you never expected that I should offer voluntarily, without your asking or even expecting it, unprecedented relief measures and generous indulgence. This bronze was engraved under the direction of the duumvirs Lucius Antonius Sosibianus and Aulus Pompeius Cassianus. |
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