ABSTRACT
The Roman Empire had to pay (1): not only had the costs of conquest and organisation to be met, but groups and individuals for whose benefit it had been developed must take a profit, legitimate or otherwise: senators, knights and people, from booty, land, business and the exercise of power. This continued under the Principate, but there were changes. Not only were victories, many won in Germany and the Balkans, less enriching (although Trajan’s conquest of Dacia, completed in 106, did bring in quantities of gold), but what senatorial commanders retained was relatively meagre. The equestrian companies lost their hold on direct taxes; instead, individuals accepted salaried posts as imperial procurators and supervised the collection of dues by local officials (15ff.); senatorial governors likewise received salaries (Cassius Dio, Roman History 52, 23, 1; 25, 2; 53, 15, 4). The position of soldiers and the people of Rome, on the other hand, improved under the Principate: pay, booty and land continued to come the way of the soldiers, and the people could look on the distribution of free grain as a right (108), with money distributions as an occasional supplement. The people profited from booty, whoever won it: the prizes of victory were traditionally devoted in part to construction, and that meant employment (Brunt, JRS 70 (1980), 81ff.). Army and people were well placed to put pressure on the one individual who, partly because of their support (4), was best able to command the resources of the state.
