History At the height of the Roman Republic's era of provincial expansion (roughly 146 BC until the end of the Republic in 27 BC) the Roman tax farming system was very profitable for the publicani. The right to collect taxes for a particular region would be auctioned every few years for a value that (in theory) approximated the tax available for collection in that region. The payment to Rome was treated as a loan and the publicani would receive interest on their payment at the end of the collection period. In addition, any excess (over their bid) tax collected would be pure profit for the publicani. The principal risk to the publicani was that the tax collected would be less than the sum bid.
history at the height of the roman republic's era of provincial expansion (roughly 146 bc until the end of the republic in 27 bc) the roman tax farming system was very profitable for the publicani the right to collect taxes for a particular region would be auctioned every few years for a value that (in theory) approximated the tax available for collection in that region the payment to rome was treated as a loan and the publicani would receive interest on their payment at the end of the collection period in addition any excess (over their bid) tax collected would be pure profit for the publicani the principal risk to the publicani was that the tax collected would be less than the sum bid