Aerarium militare

The aerarium militare was the military treasury of Imperial Rome. It was instituted by Augustus, the first Roman emperor, as a "permanent revenue source"[1] for pensions (praemia) for veterans of the Imperial Roman army. The treasury derived its funding from new taxes, an inheritance tax and a sales tax, and regularized the ad hoc provisions for veterans that under the Republic often had involved socially disruptive confiscation of property.

The praefecti aerarii militaris (singular praefectus) were the three prefects who oversaw the treasury.

  1. ^ Cassius Dio 55.24.9; Swan, The Augustan Succession, p. 174. Dio, however, seems to have mistakenly thought that regular army pay (the stipendium) also came from this fund.

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