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The Spanish Mines and the Development of Provincial Taxation in the Second Century B.C.*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

J. S. Richardson
J. S. Richardson
Affiliation:
University of St. Andrews
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Extract

Spain was famous for its mineral wealth long before the Romans arrived there. Stesichorus in the sixth century had written of the silver-rich river Tartessos, and the wealth extracted by the Carthaginians was well-known to later writers. The way in which Rome exploited these resources is of special interest. So large a source of profit must have benefited not only the state, but also the men who organized the working of the silver mines; and this in turn may well have led to political and social changes in Rome. Moreover in Spain for the first time the Romans had to evolve financial institutions and methods whereby an overseas province of substantial wealth might be taxed. The two Spanish provinces were not of course Rome's first possessions outside Italy; but Sicily already had a comprehensive set of fiscal institutions, known as the lex Hieronica, which the Romans had taken over along with their control of Hiero's kingdom, and which they had copied for the tax system in the rest of the island; while in the case of Sardinia, though very little indeed is known of the early period of its administration by Rome, the association in Livy's reports of its corn tithe with that of Sicily indicates that an essentially similar system was used there too. In the Spanish provinces therefore the Romans had few precedents in their own experience on which to draw.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 66 , November 1976 , pp. 139 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © J. S. Richardson 1976. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Stesichorus fr. 4 (Diehl); Diodorus 5. 38. 2; Pliny, NH 33. 6. 97; cf. Davies, O., Roman Mines in Europe (1935), 107Google Scholar.

2 Cic., 2 Verr. 3. 8/20; Carcopino, J., La lot de Hiéron et les Remains (1914), 1–75Google Scholar.

3 Livy 32. 27. 2; 36. 2. 13; 37. 2. 12; 37. 50. 10; 42. 31. 8. Sardinia also paid stipendium (Cic., Balb. 18. 41), though in what sense is uncertain at this date (see below pp. 147 ff.).

4 Thus especially Brunt, P. A.: ‘The Equites in the Late Republic’, Second International Conference of Economic History (Aix-en-Provence, 1962) 1, 138–41Google Scholar = The Crisis of the Roman Republic, ed. Seager, (1962), 104–7Google Scholar, to which all further references will be made; Badian, E., Publicans and Sinners (1972), 31–44Google Scholar.

5 Strabo 4. 6. 7; Pliny, NH 33. 21.78; M. Besnier, Rev. Arch. 10 (1919), 31–50.

6 Polybius 3. 57. 3.

7 Diodorus 5. 35. 3–36. 2.

8 Diodorus 5. 38. 2; Pliny, NH 33. 6. 97, cf. Davies, op. cit. (n. 1), 107.

9 Blanco, A. and Luzón, J. M., Antiquity 43 (1969), 124–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 de Avilés, A. Fernández, Archivo Español de Arqueologia 47 (1942), 136–52Google Scholar.

11 Blanco and Luzon, loc. cit. (n. 9), 127. Similar deposits were found at Cabezo Agudo (Fernández de Avilés, loc. cit., 138–9).

12 I Macc. 8. 2; Cato ap. Gellius, NA 2. 22. 29. On Roman mining in Spain in general, see also the brief sketch by Rickard, T. A., JRS 18 (1928), 129–43Google Scholar.

13 Tabulated, with some inaccuracies, by van Nostrand, J. J., Economic Survey of Ancient Rome 3 (1937), 129Google Scholar.

14 Frank, T., Economic Survey of Ancient Rome I (1933). 154–5Google Scholar. followed most recently by Broughton, T. R. S., ‘Trade and Traders in Roman Spain’, in Evans, J. A. S. (ed.), Polis and Imperium (1974), 12Google Scholar.

15 Brunt, op. cit. (n. 4), 139; Badian, op. cit (n. 4), 31–2.

16 The exception is M. Marcellus, who had been in harge of both the Spanish provinces, in 168 (Livy 45. 4. 1). The text of Livy 31. 20. 7 states that L. Lentulus in 200 ‘argenti tulit ex praeda quadraginta tria milia pondo’, but the words ‘ex praeda’ have probably crept in from the following sentence so A. H. McDonald in the 1965 Oxford text, p. 21).

17 O. Davies, op. cit. (n. 1), 98 ff.; Schulten, , Iberische Landeskunde (1955–1957), 479Google Scholar. Domergue, C., ‘Les exploitations aurifères du nord-ouest de la péninsule ibérique sous l'occupation romaine’, in La Mineria Hispana e Iberoamericana (1970) 1, 151–93Google Scholar. See Lewis, P. R. and Jones, G. B. D., JRS 60 (1970), 169–85Google Scholar and Jones, R. F. J. and Bird, D. G., JRS 62 (1972), 59–74Google Scholar on the exploitation of the north-west.

18 See Shatzman, I., Historia 21 (1972), 177–205Google Scholar.

19 Brunt, op. cit. (n. 4), 105; Badian, op. cit. (n. 11), 32 ff.

20 Polybius 6. 17. 2: πολλῶν γὰρ ἔργων ὄντων τῶν ἐκδιδομένων ὑπὸ τῶν τιμητῶν διὰ πάσης Ἰταλίας; cf. Walbank, , Historical Commentary on Polybius I (1957), 692 ffGoogle Scholar.

21 Pliny, NH 3. 138; 33.78; 37.202; M. Besnier, Rev. Arch. 10 (1919), 31–50.

22 Strabo 3.147–8 = Polybius 34. 9. 8–11; Badian, op. cit. (n. 4), 32–4,125, n. 20 and 126, n. 28; Brunt, op. cit. (n. 4), 105.

23 On Polybius' geographical work, see Strabo 8. 332.

24 Strabo 3. 147 = Posidonius FGH 87 F. 47 and Edelstein-Kidd F. 239. Compare with Diodorus 5. 35. 1–38. 3; both Strabo and Diodorus mention that an ἰδιωτής could make a Euboeic talent in three days (Diodorus 5. 36. 2); that silver boiled out of the ground during forest fires (Diodorus 5. 35. 3); and both relate Demetrius' joke (Diodorus 5. 37. 1; cf. Athenaeus 6. 233e, who also quotes Posidonius as his authority).

25 Strabo 3. 147; Diodorus 5. 36. 2. On the small-scale mine operators of fourth-century Attica, see E. Ardaillon, Les mines du Laurion dans l'antiquité (1897), 183 ff.; on the system at Laurion in general, R. J. Hopper, ABSA 48 (1953), 200–54, and ibid. 63 (1968), 293–326. For an operator working the mine himself, see [Dem]. 42, esp. § 20.

26 Diodorus. 5. 36. 3–4.

27 Tac., Ann. II. 20; Davies, op. cit. (n. 1), 15; Frere, S. S., Britannia (1967), 284 ffGoogle Scholar. For the suggestion that this was the method employed in Spain, see Frank, ESAR I, 154 and van Nostrand, ESAR III, 128 f.

28 Thus Jacoby, FGH II. 3, 190 on Posidonius 87 F.47.

29 Strabo 3.147–8 = Polybius 34. 9. 8; cf. Brunt's remark that ‘the mines were undoubtedly in the hands of publicans’ in the time of Polybius, op. cit. (n. 4), 105. Badian similarly assumes that Polybius describes the societates, op. cit. (n. 4), 33 f.

30 Frank, ESAR I, 155 f.; Badian, op. cit. (n. 4), 34.

31 Mommsen, , Röm. Staatsrecht3 II, 439Google Scholar; Kniep, F., Societas Publicanorum I (1896), 100 ff.Google Scholar; Polybius 6. 17. 1–8.

32 Strabo 3. 148: οὐ μέντοι δημόσια (sc. τὰ ἀργυρεῖα) οὔτε ἐνταῦθα οὔτε ἐν τοῖς ἀλλοις τόποις, ἀλλ᾿ εἰς ἰδιωτικὰς μετέστησαν κτήσεις.

33 See also the argument of Orth, RE suppl. IV (1924), 152.

34 Diodorus 5. 37; on the mines of the Cartagena region, see Davies, op. cit (n. 1), 107–10; Beltrán, A., Memorias de los Museos Arqueológicos Provinciales 6 (1944), 201–9Google Scholar. In one case in fourth-century Attica, a workshop attached to a mine employed only thirty slaves, and it is unlikely that the small-scale galleries would allow so many to be usefully employed in extracting the ore, Dem. 37. 4, cf. Hopper, loc. cit. (n. 25), 247–8. See below p. 147 f.

35 Compare the similar situation described in the Appendix.

36 Livy 45. 18. 3 ff.

37 Not, incidentally, ‘no public law and no freedom for the allies’ as Badian, op. cit. (n. 4), 12.

38 Brunt, op. cit. (n. 4), 105; Badian, op. cit. (n. 4), 40–2.

39 Livy 45. 18. 5.

40 Livy 45. 29. 11.

41 Livy 45. 18. 5.

42 Diodorus 31. 8. 6:

43 Livy 39. 24. 2.

44 Cassiodorus, sub anno 158. Badian, op. cit. (n. 4), 127, n. 41 believes that the publicani took over when mining resumed; Toynbee, , Hannibal's Legacy (1965) II, 360 f.Google Scholar, that probably the Macedonians did so.

45 In particular, the fear that ‘ubi publicanus esset, ibi aut ius publicum vanum aut libertatem sociis nullam esse’ (Livy 45. 18. 4) applies more clearly to the conflict of interest likely to have been experienced by a Roman provincial governor in the first century B.C. than to the administration of the ‘republics’ of Macedonia after 167 (cf. Cicero's advice to bis brother Quintus on the problems of handling the publicans expressed in similar terms: Cic., ad Quint. frat. I. 1. 32–3).

46 On the size of investment that would be needed, see Badian, op. cit. (n. 4), 33–4; Frank, ESAR I, 154–7. Though Badian (126, n. 30) rightly points out the impossibility of precise figures, he has no doubt that the capital required would be very large.

47 Above p. 141.

48 Thus Strabo says that the silver mines both at Cartagena and elsewhere εἰς ἰδιωτικὰς μετέστησαν κτήσεις (Strabo 3. 148; see also below p. 147); Sex. Mariusis said to have owned gold mines in Spain in the reign of Tiberius (Tac., Ann. 6. 19); and the ‘triumvir’ M. Crassus had very many silver mines, perhaps in Spain, according to Plut., Crass. 2. 7. On all this, see the sensible remarks of Torres, M. in Pidal, R. Menendez (ed.), Historia de España II (1935), 337 ffGoogle Scholar.

49 Rostowzew, M. ( = Rostoytzeff), Geschichte der Staatspacht in röm. Kaiserzeit, Philologus, Supp. IX (1904), 446 ffGoogle Scholar.

50 Ulpian in Dig. 39. 4. 1. 1; cf. F. Kniep, op. cit. (n. 31), 4.

51 Cic., Planc. 9. 23.

52 In the long list of Roman possessions overseas which Cicero argues were to be sold under Rullus' rogatio in 63, the only ones in Spain are ‘agros in Hispania apud Carthaginem novam’ (de leg. agr. 1. 2. 5; 2. 19. 51). On Carthaginian exploitation, see above n. 8.

53 Wine, oil and vegetables: Cic., 2 Verr. 3. 7. 18. Corn: 2 Verr. 3. 64. 151. Carcopino, op. cit. (n. 2), 80–1. Cicero's remark that vectigalia could only be assigned at Rome (de leg. agr. 2. 21. 55) applies only to censors, as is clear from de leg. agr. 1. 3. 7 (cf. Kniep, , Societas Publicanorum I, 100Google Scholar).

54 Pol. 34. 9. 8 ( = Strabo 3. 147–8); cf. above, p. 142.

55 Diodorus 5. 35–6. It is probable that he is describing the mines in southern Spain, as he stresses their continuous operation from before the arrival of the Carthaginians through to Roman times; cf. also Davies, op. cit. (n. 4), 107 n. 12, and above p. 140).

56 Posidonius T. 20 (Edelstein-Kidd) = Strabo 3. 147; Polybius 10. 11. 4 (cf. Walbank, , Historical Commentary on Polybius II, 205Google Scholar).

57 Beltrán, A., Memorias de los Museos Arqueológicos Provinciales 6 (1944), 201–9Google Scholar; for a description of the ‘La Fortuna’ mine, Gossé, G., Ampurias 4 (1942), 52 ffGoogle Scholar.

58 Beltrán, op. cit., 204; Davies, op. cit (n. 4), 20–1; Forbes, R. J., Studies in Ancient Technology VII (1963), 194–7Google Scholar. The process of driving such galleries using two men is described in Agricola's, de re metallica (Basel, 1556)Google Scholar; the dimensions he describes are approx. 3 ft by 7 ft 6 in, the size of many Roman galleries (G. Agricola, de re metallica tr. H. C. and L. H. Hoover (repr. 1950), 102). Compare also Theophrastus' remarks on mines in Samos, in de lapidibus 9. 63, and the note of D. E. Eichholz (1965) ad loc.; and the primitive, narrow workings of the mine at Diógenes, on the north slope of the Sierra Morena, which probably date from the early first century B.C., Domergue, C., Mélanges de la Casa de Velasquez 3 (1967), 29–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Thus the group of nine miners shown about to descend on the relief from Linares Rostovtzeff, SEHRE 2 I, pl. XXXV. For an illustration of the esparto buckets, see especially Gossé, art. cit. (n. 57), pl. IV.

60 Compare the work-forces used at Laurion, as calculated by Lauffer, S., Die Bergwerksklaven von Laureion I (1955), 46–8Google Scholar; and by Wilsdorf, H., Bergleute und Hüttenmänner im Altertum, Freiburger Forschungsheft I (1952), 143–4Google Scholar. See also Appendix on numbers in the South American silver-mines in the sixteenth century.

61 On cupellation, see Tylecote, R. F., Metallurgy in Archaeology (1962), 79–82Google Scholar.

62 Davies, op. cit. (n. 1), 107–10.

63 Domergue, C., Mélanges de la Casa de Velasquez I (1965), 9–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Archive Español de Arqueologia 39 (1966), 41–72Google Scholar; Hübner on CIL II 6247.

64 For example, P. Turullius, whose name occurs on several lead ingots, is also known from local coins as a duumvir quinquennalis in the early imperial period, Beltrán, A., Memorias de los Museos Arqueologicos Provinciales 8 (1947), 207–8Google Scholar.

65 Badian, op. cit. (n. 4), 69; Kniep, op. cit. (n. 31), 241 ff.

66 CIL XV 7916.

67 FIRA 2 I, 104 and 105.

68 Cod. Theod. 10. 19. 10 (29 Aug. 382); cf. A. Jones, H. M., The later Roman Empire (1964), 435–6 and 838–9Google Scholar.

69 Bakewell, P. J., Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico, Zacatecas, 1546–1700 (1971), 186 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Haring, C., The Spanish Empire in America (1947), 277–8Google Scholar.

70 Above, nn. 52 and 54.

71 Above, p. 145 and n. 53.

72 Strabo 3. 148.

73 FIRA 2 I, 104, ll. 12–24.

74 Cic., a Verr. 3 6. 12.

75 Florus I. 33. 7.

76 On the stipendium as a reward for the victor: Cic., 2 Verr. 3. 6. 12; Caesar, BG I. 44. 2; Mommsen, , Röm. Staatsrecht3 III (1887), 728Google Scholar; Marquardt, , Röm. Staatsverwaltung II (1876), 185 ffGoogle Scholar. On the Carthaginian payments: Polybius 1. 62. 9; 3. 27. 5–8; 15. 18. 7; Livy 21. 1. 5, 40. 5, 41. 9; 30. 37. 5; 32. 2. 1; 33. 46. 8–9; 36. 4. 7.

77 Thus J. J. van Nostrand, op. cit. (n. 13), 127; A. Schulten, CAH 8 (1930), 308 and n. 3; Sutherland, C. H. V., The Romans in Spain (1939), 53 ff.Google Scholar; and perhaps Meyer, E., Röm. Staat und Staatsgedanke2 (1961), 234Google Scholar.

78 Livy 23. 48. 5. Their request had been for ‘pecuniam in stipendium, vestimentaque et frumentum exercitui’ (48. 4).

79 Livy 23. 21. 1–5.

80 Livy 21. 61. 6–11.

81 Livy 28. 25. 6 ff., 34. 11.

82 Livy 5. 27. 15; 5. 32. 5; 9. 41. 7; 10. 46. 12. Cf. 29. 3. 5 (Mandonius). For a contrary view, see van Nostrand and Schulten, loc. cit. (n. 77).

83 Livy 40. 35. 4.

84 Mommsen, , Röm. Staatsrecht2 III, 729 fGoogle Scholar.

85 Livy 37. 25. 12 = Pol. 21. 11. 9; Livy 38. 38. 9 = Pol. 21. 43. 14. For Hellenistic civitates stipendiariae, see Livy 34. 57. 10; 35. 16. 6; 37. 53. 4; 37. 55. 6; 38. 39. 7–8 (= Pol. 21. 46. 2–3).

86 Demands on the Celtiberians: Livy 40. 47. 10; Gracchus' arrangements: Appian, ibid. 43. 179; 44. 182. It may be at this time, rather than in 197, that the Iberian coinage on the denarius standard was first introduced, to pay the stipendium; M. H. Crawford, Num. Chron. 1969, 79 ff., though he believes that the Iberian denarii were introduced in 197, presents arguments not incompatible with 178.

87 Livy 43. 2. 12; Ps-Ascon. 203 (Stangl). On aestimatio frumenti see Cic., 2 Verr. 3. 81. 188 ff.; J. Carcopino, op. cit. (n. 2), 192 ff. On later abuses, Cic., 2 Verr. 3. 77. 178; Tacitus, , Agricola 19Google Scholar; Ammianus 28. 1. 18; Pritchard, R. T., Historia 20 (1971), 224–38Google Scholar.

88 Sutherland, op. cit. (n. 57); van Nostrand, op. cit. (n. 13), 127; Rostovtzeff, M., RE VIIGoogle Scholar s.v. ‘frumentum’, 153–4.

89 In 203, grain was sent from Spain to Italy and to Africa: Livy 30. 3. 2, 26. 5–6.

90 Cic., de leg. agr. I. 2. 5; 2. 19. 51. This is the only evidence cited by Rostovtzeff for state-owned land in Spain during the republic. On the mining area at Nova Carthago, see above p. 145.

91 Livy 29. 3. 5; 40. 35. 4.

92 Livy 34. 9. 12–13.

93 Cic., 2 Verr. 3. 14. 36–7.

94 Livy 34. 21. 7; cf. Gellius, NA 2. 22. 29.

95 Livy 23. 48. 4–5.

96 Livy 22. 11. 6–9; Polybius 3. 106. 7.

97 Livy 43. 2. 1–12.

98 The only period in which neither of the two Spanish governors is stated by the sources to be involved in fighting in the complete list 218–179 is 189–8, when L. Plautius Hypsaeus was in Citerior, P. Iunius Brutus in Ulterior (Livy 37. 50. 8; 57. 3–4).

99 Livy 32. 28. 11. In 192, Fulvius Nobilior (Ulterior) was besieging Toletum on the Tagus, while Flaminius captured Licabrum, south-east of Corduba (Livy 35. 22. 58).

100 The sources used in this appendix are: for Zacatecas, the survey by Bakewell, P. J., Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico, Zacatecas 1546–1700 (1971)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for Potosi, Luis Capoche, Relación general del Asiento y Villa Imperial de Potosí, written in Potosí in 1585 for the benefit of the viceroy Toledo, and printed in Bibl. de autores españoles CXXII (1959), 5–242, edited by Hanke, L.; and an anonymous Description de la villa y minas de Potosí, dating from 1603, printed in Bibl. de autores españoles CLXXXIII (1965), 372–85Google Scholar. I wish to thank especially Dr. N. G. Parker for drawing my attention to these mines, and Mr. Peter Cummings for assistance in what was for me an unfamiliar area.

101 Polybius 34. 9. 8–9; Bakewell, op. cit., 128; Description de 1603, 377.

102 Bakewell, op. cit., 131–2; Capoche, op. cit., 104 ff.; cf. above p. 145 f.

103 Zacatecas: Bakewell, op. cit., 127–8. Potosí: Description de 1603, 377.

104 Hence the much larger proportion not involved in mining in Potosf, which was much more isolated than Zacatecas.

105 Bakewell, op. cit., 137; Capoche, op. cit., 79–102.

106 Bakewell, op. cit., 181 ff.; Capoche, op. cit., 79–102.