The district of the Quattuor Publica Africae

The expression "Four Public Revenues of Africa" has been interpreted in two ways. There could have been one tax, the portorium, collected in four districts. De Laet (who returned to the issue in an article published in 1953) rejects this view. The area documented in the inscriptions seems to be too large to allow for four districts in North Africa. Rather there was one district, in which four taxes were collected: the portorium, the vigesima libertatis (the 20th part of the value of a slave that was manumitted), the quinta et vicesima venalium mancipiorum (the 25th part on selling slaves), and the vigesima hereditatium (the 20th part on inheritances). Furthermore there seems to have been a separate treatment of maritime and land commerce, in a statio maritima and a statio terrestris in Leptis Magna.

Fifteen offices are documented thorughout North Africa, five on the coast (Leptis Magna, Carthago, Utica, Rusicade, Chullu), ten in the interior. No offices are documented in Mauretania Tingitana (modern Morocco), but that is probably merely due to the loss of inscriptions. Because four taxes were collected, an office was not necessarily a customs office. The central administration seems to have been in Carthago.

The amount of the tax is mentioned in inscriptions from two interior offices, in Lambaesis (Tazoult) and Zarai (Aïn Oulmene), both in modern Algeria. The one from Zarai, from 202 AD, has been preserved well:

Imp(eratoribus) Caes(aribus) L. Septimio Severo III et M. Aurelio Antonino, Aug(ustis) Piis, co(n)s(ulibus) LEX PORTUS, POST DISCESSUM COH(ORTIS) INSTITUTA LEX CAPITULARIS Mancipia singula: (denarii) I s(emissem) Eq(u)m, equam: (denarii) I s(emissem) Mulum, mulam: (denarii) I s(emissem) Asinum, bovem: s(emissem) Porcum: (sestertius) Porcellu(m): (dupondius) Ovem, caprum: (sertertius) Edum, agnu(m): (dupondius) Pecora in nundinium immunia. LEX VESTIS PEREGRINAE Abollam cenatori(a)m: (denarii) I s(emissem) Tunicam ternariam: (denarii) I s(emissem) Lodicem: s(emissem) Sagum purpurium: (denarius) Cetera vestis afra in singulas lacinias: (?) LEX CORIARIA Corium perfectu(m): s(emissem) --- pilos(um): (dupondius) Pelle(m) ovella(m), caprina(m): (dupondius) Scordiscum malac(um) p(ondo) C: (?) Rudia (?) p(ondo) C: s(emissem) Glutinis p(ondo) X: (dupondius) Spongiaru(m) p(ondo) X: (dupondius) LEX PORTUS M(A)XIM(A) Pequaria, iument(a) immunia. Ceteris rebus sicut ad caput. Vini amp(horam), gari amp(horam): (sestertius) Palmae (pondo) C: s(emissem) Fici p(ondo) C: [s(emissem) ?] Vatassae (?) modios decem, nucis modios dec[em]: (?) Resina(m), pice(m), alumen in p(ondo) C, ferr ---

Emperors Caesars Lucius Septimius Severus for the third time and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Augusti, Pious, being consuls. PORTORIUM LAW, ESTABLISHED AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THE COHORT LAW FOR THE DUTIES TO BE PAID PER HEAD A slave: 1 denarius 1/2 A horse, a mare: 1 denarius 1/2 A mule, a she-mule: 1 denarius 1/2 A donkey, an ox: 1/2 denarius A pig: 1 sestertius A suckling pig: 2 as A sheep, a goat: 1 sestertius A kid, a lamb: 2 as Cattle intended for the market are exempt from all duties. LAW FOR FOREIGN FABRICS A dinner cloak: 1 denarius 1/2 A tunic of the price of 3 aurei: 1 denarius 1/2 A bed blanket: 1/2 denarius A purple cloak: 1 denarius The other African fabrics, per piece: (?) LAW FOR LEATHER A completely prepared hide: 1/2 denarius With the hair: 2 as A sheepskin, a goatskin: 2 as The soft hide, per hundred pounds: (?) The raw hide, per hundred pounds: 1/2 denarius Glue, per ten pounds: 2 as Sponges, per ten pounds: 2 as MAIN PORTORIUM LAW Animals going to pasture and pack animals are duty free. For the rest, see the regulation which is at the top. An amphora of wine, an amphora of garum: 1 sestertius Dates, per hundred pounds: 1/2 denarius Figs, per hundred pounds: 1/2 denarius (?) Ten bushels of ..., ten bushels of nuts: (?) One hundred pounds of resin, pitch, alum, can pass duty-free.

Calculations have shown that different percentages were charged for different goods, for example 2.5%, 2%, 0.375% and 0.3%. This suggests that we are dealing with an octroi for the local market. The regular precentage in North Africa remains unknown.

The Zarai Tariff. France 2014, figs. 3-4.