[colliric]

Although publicans of ancient rome were primarily tax collectors, they also worked as public planning contractors and other such empire related work. Considering much of their work would be simular work to public servant work of today, should we consider them to have been such as their name could potentially imply? were they a "pre-cursor", exactly the same role or entirly diffrent?

I am interested because i believe my Lord and Saviour referred to them as such and it is correct to read "publicans" in the NT scriptures as being like the public servants of today.

[Varilion]

In the ancient Rome the state tresury was called "publĭcum", because it was "public" money.
Publicans name come from there, they were tax-collectors.

[Potemkin]

In the ancient Rome the state tresury was called "publĭcum", because it was "public" money.
Publicans name come from there, they were tax-collectors.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the Romans had a 'privatised' form of tax collection - they would hire private contractors to collect taxes for them. These tax collectors would charge fees for collecting the taxes (usually a percentage of the total take), which would be added onto the tax bill. This, understandably, was widely resented. Furthermore, in their role as public planning contractors, there was notorious corruption and cronyism. They were hated and resented even more than bankers are now, post-2008.

[Varilion]

Someone has idea of how were taxes collected in other countries of that age?

[pugsville]

HMm under the republic I thought taxes were collected by tax farmer tender. People bid with the largest tender winning the right to collect the taxes from a province. What was raised above the tender price was profit kept by the sucessfull bidder. There tended to co-operation in corruption between the Governor and the tax farmers about collecting taxes as there were who you appealed to about taxes and supplied the military force to enforce to the taxation. Taxation was also collective, levied on villages and cities as a collective price to be reached with the whole being responsible collectively for the whole amount (if some peasants run away the village must still produce the whole sum) Well that was my rough understanding of late republican provincial taxtation. Is this right and how did it change under the empire.