Of Taxation, Instability, Fraud and Calculation

Did Nero really live up to his cruel reputation? In ad 58, he proposed to the Senate that indirect taxes (customs taxes and duties on imports) should be abolished, thus conferring ‘a most splendid boon in the human race’, according to Tacitus (1942: Book XIII, Chap. 50). Did these words originate with Tacitus himself, or was he quoting Nero, who had a penchant for flights of lyricism? Tacitus reveals only that the senators were unwilling to consent to the idea, on the grounds that it could imperil the greatness of Rome and its empire. They also argued that the tax-farming