AURUM LUSTRA´LE
AURUM LUSTRA´LE was a tax imposed by Constantine,
according to Zosimus (2.38), upon all merchants and traders, which was
payable at every lustrum, or every four years, and not at every five, as
might have been expected from the original length of the lustrum. This tax
was also called
auri et argenti collatio or
praestatio, and thus in Greek
ἡ συντέλεια ἡ τοῦ χρυσαργύρου.
(
Cod. 11, tit. 1;
Cod. Theod. 13, tit. 1;
Orelli-Henzen,
Inscr. 6507.) A some-what similar tax was the
aurum negotiatorium, first mentioned under
Caligula, which, however, went to the support of the
aerarium, or public treasury, not the imperial
fiscus (
Suet. Cal.
40,
41). It does not appear to have
been permanent, and is perhaps the same as the duty repealed by Nero on the
petition of the trading classes (
Tac. Ann.
13.51). In the confused narrative of the Augustan historian, it is
mentioned first as imposed under Alexander Severus, then excused together
with the aurum coronarium (Lampr.
Al. Sev. cc. 24, 32).
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