Part 17 (1/2)

ii. 16. 4). But such a conflict was unusual.

[150] Cato _R.R_. pr. 1. Est interdum praestare mercaturis rem quaerere, nisi tam periculosum sit, et item fenerari, si tam honestum sit. Majores nostri sic habuerunt et ita in legibus posiverunt, furem dupli condemnari, feneratorem quadrupli. Quanto pejorem civem existimarint feneratorem quam furem, hinc licet existimare. Cf. Cic.

_de Off_. i. 42. 150. Improbantur ii quaestus, qui in odia hominum incurrunt, ut port.i.torum, ut feneratorum.

[151] Cic. _de Off_. ii. 25. 89. c.u.m ille ... dixisset ”Quid fenerari?”

tum Cato ”Quid hominem,” inquit, ”occidere?”

[152] For such professional money-lenders see Plaut. _Most_. iii. 1. 2 ff.; _Curc_. iv. 1. 19.

[153] Liv. x.x.xii. 27.

[154] On the history and functions of the bankers see Voigt _Ueber die Bankiers, die Buchfuhrung und die Litteralobligation der Romer_ (Abh. d.

Konigl. Sachs. Gesell. d. Wissench.; Phil. hist. Cla.s.se, Bd. x); Marquardt Staatsverw, ii. pp. 64 ff.; Deloume _Les manieurs d'argent a Rome_, pp. 146 ff.

[155] Plin. _H.N_. xxi. 3. 8.

[156] Cf. Cic. _de Off_, iii. 14. 58. Pythius, qui esset ut argentarius apud omnes ordines gratiosus....

[157] Yet the two never became thoroughly a.s.similated. The _argentarius_, for instance, was not an official tester of money, and the _nummularii_ appear not to have performed certain functions usual to the banker, e.g. sales by auction. See Voigt op. cit. pp. 521. 522.

[158] Plaut. _Cure_. iv. 1. 6 ff.

Commonstrabo, quo in quemque hominem facile inveniatis loco.

Ditis d.a.m.nosos maritos sub basilica quaerito.

Ibidem erunt scorta exoleta, quique stipulari solent.

In foro infumo boni homines, atque dites ambulant.

Sub veteribus, ibi sunt qui dant quique accipiunt faenore.

[159] To be bankrupt is _foro mergi_ (Plaut. _Ep_. i. 2. 16), _a foro fugere, abire_ (Plaut. _Pers_. iii. 3. 31 and 38).

[160] Cic. _de Off_. ii. 24. 87. Toto hoc de genere, de quaerenda, de collocanda pecunia, vellem etiam de utenda, commodius a quibusdam optumis viris ad Janum medium sedentibus ... disputatur. For _Ja.n.u.s medius_ and the question whether it means an arch or a street see Richter _Topogr. der Stadt Rom_. pp. 106. 107.

[161] Liv. x.x.xix. 44; xliv. 16. The Porcian was followed by the Fulvian Basilica (Liv. xl. 51). The dates of the three were 184, 179, 169 B.C.

respectively.

[162] Deloume op. cit. pp. 320 ff.; Guadet in Daremberg-Saglio _Dict.

des Antiq. s.v_. Basilicae.

[163] Large transport s.h.i.+ps could themselves come to Rome if their build was suited to river navigation. In 167 B.C. Aemilius Paulus astonished the city with the size of a s.h.i.+p (once belonging to the Macedonian King) on which he arrived (Liv. xlv. 35). On the whole question of this foreign trade see Voigt in Iwan-Muller's _Handbuch_ iv. 2, pp. 373-378.

[164] Voigt op. cit. p. 377 n. 99.

[165] Compare Cunningham _Western Civilisation in its Economic Aspects_ vol. i. p. 165, ”It is only under very special conditions, including the existence of a strong government to exercise a constant control, that free play for the formation of a.s.sociations of capitalists bent on securing profit, is anything but a public danger. The landed interest in England has. .h.i.therto been strong enough to bring legislative control to bear on the moneyed men from time to time.... The problem of leaving sufficient liberty for the formation of capital and for enterprise in the use of it, without allowing it licence to exhaust the national resources, has not been solved.”

[166] Plut. Numa 17. On the history of these gilds see Waltzing _Corporations professionelles chez les Remains_ pp. 61-78.

[167] The praetor was Rutilius (Ulpian in Dig. 38. 2. 1. 1), perhaps P.