Tan provides a novel approach to understanding the politics of the Roman Republic—follow the money. In the process, he breaks through a long-standing loggerhead in the debate about the political character of the Republic: Was it fundamentally aristocratic, with a narrow set of families dominating high office in the city, or basically democratic, given that citizen assemblies elected magistrates and passed legislation?
Tan argues that the Roman people had the most leverage over state policy when they paid taxes, particularly a property tax called tributum. After the conquest of Macedonia in 167 b.c., tributum was permanently suspended, and the Roman state financed itself largely from the proceeds of empire. The Roman populace being less interested in how other people’s money was spent, elites enjoyed freer reign. The aristocracy then chose to maintain a fiscally weak and decentralized state. Because few Roman senators would ever hold the highest offices...