Editing Caligula (section)

==== Tax and treasury ====
Suetonius claims that Caligula squandered 2.7&nbsp;billion [[Sestertius|sesterces]] in his first year{{sfn|Suet. ''Calig.''|loc=37}} and addressed the consequent treasury deficit by confiscating the estates of wealthy individuals, after false accusations, fines or outright seizure, even the death penalty, as a means of raising money. This seems to have started in earnest around the time of Caligula's confrontation with the senate (in early 39).{{sfn|Suet. ''Calig.''|loc=38}} Suetonius's retrospective balance sheet overlooks what would have been owed to Caligula, personally and in his capacity as emperor, on Tiberius' death, and the release of the former emperor's hoarded wealth into the economy at large. Caligula's inheritance included the deceased empress [[Livia]]'s vast bequest, which Caligula distributed among its nominated public, private and religious beneficiaries. Barrett in ''Caligula: The Abuse of Power'' asserts that this "massive cash injection would have given the Roman economy a tremendous boost".{{sfn|Barrett|2015|p=298}}

Dio remarks the beginnings of a financial crisis in 39, and connects it to the cost of Caligula's extravagant bridge-building project at Baiae.{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=LIX.10}} Suetonius has presumably the same financial crisis starting in 38; he does not mention a bridge but lists a broad range of Caligula's extravagances, said to have exhausted the state treasury.{{sfn|Suet. ''Calig.''|loc=37}}

To Wilkinson, Caligula's uninterrupted use of precious metals in coin issues does not suggest a bankrupt treasury, though there must have been a blurring of boundaries between Caligula's personal wealth, and his income as head of state.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2004|p=10}} Caligula's immediate successor, [[Claudius]], abolished taxes, embarked on various costly building projects and donated 15,000 sesterces to each [[Praetorian Guard]] in 41{{sfn|Tacitus|loc=[[wikisource:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 12#53|XII.53]]}}{{sfn|Suet. ''Claud.''|loc=10}} as his own reign began, which suggests that Caligula had left him a solvent treasury.{{sfnm|Alston|1998|1p=82|Salmon|1987|2p=153}}

In the long term, the occasional windfall aside, Caligula's spending exceeded his income. Fund-raising through taxation became a major preoccupation. Provincial citizens were liable for direct payment of taxes used to fund the military, a payment from which Italians were exempt. Caligula abolished some taxes, including the deeply unpopular sales tax, but he introduced an unprecedented range of new ones, and rather than employ professional tax farmers ([[publicani]]) in their collection, he made this a duty of the notoriously forceful Praetorian Guard. Dio and Suetonius describe these taxes as "shameful": some were remarkably petty. Caligula taxed "taverns, artisans, slaves and the hiring of slaves", edibles sold in the city, litigation anywhere in the Empire, weddings or marriages, the wages of porters "or perhaps couriers", and most infamously, a tax on prostitutes (active, retired or married) or their pimps, liable for "a sum equivalent to a single transaction". Citizens of provincial Italy lost their previous tax exemptions. Most individual tax bills were fairly small but cumulative; over Caligula's brief reign, taxes were doubled overall. Even then, the revenue was nowhere near enough, and the imposition was deeply resented by Rome's commoners. Josephus claims that this led to riotous protests at the Circus. Barrett remarks that stories of consequent "mass executions" there by the military should "almost certainly" be dismissed as "standard exaggeration".{{sfn|Suet. ''Calig.''|loc=12}}{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=298–301}}{{sfn|Josephus|loc=[[s:The Antiquities of the Jews/Book XIX#Chapter 19|19.28]]}}

Property or money left to Tiberius as emperor but not collected on his death would have passed to Caligula as office-holder. Roman inheritance law recognised a legator's obligation to provide for his family; Caligula seems to have considered his fatherly duties to the state entitled him to a share of every will from pious subjects. The army was not exempt; centurions who left nothing or too little to the emperor could be judged guilty of ingratitude, and have their wills set aside. Centurions who had acquired property by plunder were forced to turn over their spoils to the state.{{sfn|Cassius Dio|loc=LIX.15}}{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=224, 301}}

Stories of a brothel in the Imperial palace, staffed by Roman aristocrats, matrons and their children, are taken literally by Suetonius and Dio; McGinn believes they could be based on a single incident, extended to an institution in the telling.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McGinn |first=Thomas A J |date=1998 |title=Caligula's Brothel on the Palatine |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/651730/summary |journal=Echos du Monde Classique: Classical News and Views |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=95–107 |issn=1913-5416}}</ref>{{page needed |date=August 2024}} Similar allegations would be made in the future against [[Commodus]] and [[Elagabalus]].{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=299–302}} Winterling, citing Dio 59.28.9, traces the outline of the story to Cassius Dio's account for AD 40, and his allegation that the noble tenants of newly built suites of rooms at the palace were compelled to pay exorbitant rents for the privilege of living so close to Caligula, and under the protection of the praetorians. No brothel is mentioned in this account.{{sfn|Winterling|2011|pp=140–143}} Suetonius appears to reverse the traditional aristocratic client-patron ceremonies of mutual obligation, and have Caligula accepting payments for maintenance from his loyal consular "friends" at morning salutations, evening banquets, and bequest announcements. The sheer numbers of "friends" involved meant that meticulous records were kept of who had paid, how much, and who still owed. His agents would then visit the very same consuls who had been involved in conspiracies against him, rail against the Senate's treachery ''en masse'' but ask for "gifts" from individuals to express their loyal friendship in return. A refusal was unthinkable. Winterling describes the families who occupied these rooms as hostage, under the supervision of the Praetorians; some paid up willingly, some reluctantly, but all paid. Caligula made loans available at high interest to those who lacked the necessary funds, to complete the humiliation of Rome's elite, especially the old Republican families.{{sfn|Winterling|2011|pp=140–143}}

Despite his biographers' attempts to ridicule Caligula's taxes, many were continued after his death. The military remained responsible for all tax collection, and the tax on prostitution continued up to the reign of [[Severus Alexander]]. Caligula's ruling that bequests made to any reigning emperor became property of his office, not himself as a private individual, was made constitutional under [[Antoninus Pius]].{{sfn|Barrett|2015|pp=301–302}}