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SALA´RIUM allowance of salt for soldiers and officers; then allowance for salt; and so (though not earlier than the Empire) == stipendium or military pay generally (as in Plin. Nat. 31.89), though the word still included rations. (Salt was once more supplied in kind later: see Hist. Aug., Claud. 14, Prob. 4.)

Augustus instituted in B.C. 27 a further salarium for governors of provinces, senatorial or imperial. The outfit and travelling expenses of governors (vasarium) had previously been voted them by the senate. But though the supply of outfit and necessaries, in money or kind, by no means came to an end, Augustus also paid a fixed money-allowance or “salary” to provincial governors (D. C. 52.23, 53.15; Suet. Aug. 36). The amounts varied with their rank (D. C. 53.15), but are not known to us. Dio Cassius (78.22) says that in the time of Macrinus a million sesterces were paid; but the provincial governor here mentioned was never allowed to visit his province; and the million sesterces may therefore, it has been thought, have included compensation for the honours and advantages lost, and consequently may be much more than the regular amount. Salaria were also given by various emperors to other persons: the comites of the emperor (Suet. Tib. 46); legal assessors (Hist. Aug., Alex. Sev. 46); poor senators (Suet. Nero 10); rhetoricians and philosophers in all the provinces (Hist. Aug., Ant. Pius, 11; cf. Suet. Vesp. 18); grammarians, doctors, haruspices, engineers, architects (Hist. Aug., Alex. Sev. 44). The various curatores and procuratores were divided according to amount of salary into sexagenarii (60,000 sesterces), centenarii (100,000), ducenarii, and trecenarii. Respecting the pay which certain classes of priests received, see SACERDOS and VECTIGALIA TEMPLORUM


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  • Cross-references from this page (3):
    • Suetonius, Nero, 10
    • Suetonius, Tiberius, 46
    • Suetonius, Divus Augustus, 36
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