The aes uxorium was a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
tax paid by those who reached adulthood without marrying,
[Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898. ] with the exception of the
Vestal Virgin
In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( la, Vestālēs, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame.
The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty ...
s.
Ulpian
Ulpian (; la, Gnaeus Domitius Annius Ulpianus; c. 170223? 228?) was a Roman jurist born in Tyre. He was considered one of the great legal authorities of his time and was one of the five jurists upon whom decisions were to be based according to ...
Fragmentum xvii.1
History
It was first imposed by the
censors
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
in 403 BC under the ''
Lex Papia Poppaea
The ''Lex Papia et Poppaea'' was a Roman law introduced in 9 AD to encourage and strengthen marriage. It included provisions against adultery and against celibacy after a certain age and complemented and supplemented Augustus' ''Lex Iulia de ma ...
''.
It was one of the many measures against ''caelibes'' (celibates), unless they married within 100 days. Not only did they have to pay the tax, but also they could not have a ''hereditas'' or a legacy (''legatum'').
A man, when he attained the age of sixty, and a woman, when she attained the age of fifty, were not included within certain penalties of the law.
[Ulp. Frag. xvi] If they had not obeyed the law before attaining those respective ages, they were perpetually bound by its penalties by a ''
senatus consultum
A ''senatus consultum'' (Latin: decree of the senate, plural: ''senatus consulta'') is a text emanating from the senate in Ancient Rome. It is used in the modern phrase ''senatus consultum ultimum''.
Translated into French as ''sénatus-consulte' ...
Pernicianum''. A ''senatus consultum Claudianum'' so far modified the strictness of the new rule as to give a man who married above sixty the same advantage that he would have had if had married under sixty, provided he married a woman who was under fifty; the ground of which rule was the legal notion that a woman under fifty was still capable of having children.
[Suetonius, ]Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...
23 If the woman was above fifty and the man under sixty, this was called ''Impar Matrimonium'', and by a ''senatus consultum Calvitianum'' it was entirely without effect as to releasing from incapacity to take ''legata'' and ''dotes''. On the death of the woman, therefore, the ''dos'' became ''caduca''.
See also
*
Bachelor tax
A bachelor tax is a punitive tax imposed on unmarried men. In the modern era, many countries do vary tax rates by marital status, so current references to bachelor taxes are typically implicit rather than explicit; and given the state of tax la ...
*
Ehestandshilfe
Ehestandshilfe ("marriage assistance") was a tax levied on unmarried people in Nazi Germany as part of the Nazi state's policy of natalism, and used to contribute to the costs of the marriage loan system. This was levied at a rate of 2–5% o ...
*
Tax on childlessness
The tax on childlessness (russian: налог на бездетность, translit=nalog na bezdetnost) was imposed in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries, starting in the 1940s, as part of their natalist policies. Joseph Stalin's regim ...
References
Attribution
Taxation in ancient Rome
Taxes promoting marriage and reproduction
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