In 123BC, after a decade of pushing for it, Gaius Gracchus succeeded in passing a law that would have some unintended and terrible consequences. By the terms of this law, Pergamum was finally subjected to organized taxation. The Republic had to turn to the private sector to tax the subjects of the bequeathed kingdom, because it did not have the huge bureaucracies that the kings of the east relied on, to not only tax-but over-tax their subjects. This led to tax-collecting contracts being publicly auctioned, with those who bought them paying in full the tribute owed to the state. Even the wealthiest of contributors could not afford to pay these, as the sums were enormous. Instead, the wealth of many investors would be pooled, and the resulting companies administered like the huge financial concerns they were. Just like in modern finance, shares could be offered, meetings held and directors elected to the service of the board. Pergamum had become a Roman province by 129BC, and the 'tax-collecting' staff in the province might include soldiers, sailors-even postmen, besides the regular staff itself. Publicani was the name given to the businessmen who ran these cartels. The rape of the newly minted province was now in full swing.
The name publicani, referred to these men as agents of the state. There was however, nothing public in the quality of the 'service' they provided in Pergamum. Profit was all that mattered-the bigger the better. The ultimate goal of these men was not only to collect the tribute owed to the state, but also to bully the provincials in paying extra for the 'privilege' of being bled dry. Of course, by the laws of the Republic, subjects on paper did have some appeal against the torments of the tax predators. The taxation system may have been privatized, but the provinces administration remained in the hands of the Senate. In other words, with the men supposedly imbued the most with the values of the Republic. These ideals were supposed to have obliged governors to provide their subects with the benefits of security, peace and stability. However, in the case of Pergamum, the bribes offered to look the other way were so gainful, that even some of the most law abiding men were taken in. Roman rectitude and uprightness were becoming values lost to the gold rush in the province. To the benighted provincials, there appeared to be little difference in the publicani and the senators sent to govern them. The rape of Pergamum's wealth was an in-your-face spectacle of pure greed overcoming any sense of decency and honor that the Republic was supposed to stand for.
The highways that were originally built for commerce or war now just brought the Roman tax predators to their victims faster, pack animals literally strained under the weight of the tribute they carried along these roads as they were guarded by legionaires. Ships across the Meditteranean sailed for Italy, loaded with plundered treasure from imperial extortion. Rome was becoming a nightmare behemoth whose innards were becoming clogged with gold. The more Rome became over-laden with silver, gold and other treasure, the harder she closed her massive fists to attain more. The lust for more and more mineral wealth actually began to alter the landscape of her western provinces. Almost as if the giant fingers of the Roman behemoth had dug for hidden mineral wealth, the scarred terrain of the provinces in the west bore witness to the Republic's lust for silver and gold. In the east cities were plundered for treasure of any kind, be it money, works of art-even foodstuffs. In the west it was the earth itself that fell victim to imperial greed. The result of this was mining on a scale that would not be seen again until the industrial revolution! Spain bore witness to the worst of the excavation devastation. Many observers talked in awe of what they had seen there.
A century previously, the publicani had taken over the mines that Rome had annexed from Carthage. They bore and dug there with their exemplary flair for turining a profit. A single network of tunnels might extend for more than a hundred square miles. Forty thousand slaves had a nightmare existence working in just one of these networks. For people who think pollution and smog started with the industrial age; the cloud of pollution that hung over the devastated landscape from the smelting furnaces through giant chimneys in Spain was so toxic that birds would die if they flew through the exhaust. Originally, large areas of Spain were thought to be too remote and dangerous to dig for mineral wealth. However, by the second century BC, all areas except the north of the Iberian peninsula had been used for mining (the Iberian peninsula was not brought under Roman control completely until 23 BC). The measurement of concentrations of lead in the ice from Greenland's glaciers, show an extremely marked increase during this time. These lead concentrations are a stark reminder of how huge the mass of poisonous fumes that the Roman mines were emitting must have been. The ore that was being smelted was silver and it has been estimated that for every ton of silver extracted over then thousand tons of rock had to be quarried.
By the first century BC, it has also been estimated that the Roman mint was using fifty tons of silver each year. The immense scale of these operations, both in Asia and in Spain could not have come to fruition without the public sector working hand in glove with the private sector. The Roman authorities in the provinces began to look for partners in crime in the ranks of Roman officialdom, for providing such handsome pay-outs, safe roads, good harbors and natives who were kept under the imperial thumb. It was the height of hypocrisy to watch senators show such an uppity contempt for all matters financial--and yet at the same time making loads of money from these 'arrangements'. There was even a law that a publicanus would not be allowed to join the Senate, just as no senator was permitted to have anything to do with trade beyond Rome's boundaries. However, in real life these laws did not work hardly at all. Both the entrepreneur and the senator or governor needed each other to become wealthy. The actions between the private sector and public sectors in ancient Rome, very much became what might be thought of as an archetypal military-industrial complex. It had all started with the willing of the kingdom of Pergamum to the Republic. In the years after this, motives for profit, status and Rome's traditional values had become more confused than ever.
To the two or three people who read this blog:-) Usually you will never see me type the amount that I did in this post because I am such a horrid typist (not that it was a lot of material)-I was just very anxious to show the corrosive effect on the government -even back to ancient times-when money is allowed to cloud people's minds-and also thought some of the other information was good to know-as the info about mining and the like was completely new to me(as to the extent of pollution etcetera). I would have kept on going -but came to the end of information I had on paper-back pain is horrid right now-but when you are doing something you love it doesn't matter as much. I am really excited about the continuation of the story here and hope to have it here as soon as I can. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!
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