Fiscus

Upon the latter chest fell the most burdensome costs, namely the ones for army and fleet, bureaucracy and grants to urban plebs (distribution of wheat or moneys).

The head of the fiscus in the first years was the a rationibus,[1] originally a freedman due to Augustus' desire to place the office in the hands of a servant free of the class demands of the traditional society.

[citation needed] From the time of Hadrian, any a rationibus hailed from the Equestrian Order (equites) and remained so through the 3rd century and into the age of Diocletian.

[citation needed] He also managed the assets of the emperor (patrimonium principii), the army's expenditures, the allocation of wheat, the restoration of aqueducts, temples and streets.

Nerva established one specific magistrate (praetor) designated to judge over the legal cases between private individuals and fiscus.

With Diocletian came a series of massive reforms, and total control over the finances of the empire fell to the new stronger central government.

In the late imperial period, probably under Constantine, the fiscus was renamed largitiones, and it was entrusted to the comes sacrarum largitionum (count of the sacred largess) a proper appointed minister of finance.