Quintus Cicero and taxation in Asia: notes on Cicero ad Quintum fratrem 1, 1  

The article comments on a series of passages in Cic.ad Q.fr. 1, 1, to shed light on the relationship between the forms of taxation in the province of Asia in the first half of the first century BC, its exercise in the three years of the proconsular government of Quintus Cicero (61-59 BC), the taxation ideology adopted by the Roman rulers and thus the compatibility between the welfare of taxpayers and respect for the publicans, as irreplaceable tax collectors and as a political and economic group allied to the family of Marcus Cicero. A concluding look is also taken at the meaning and aims of the epistle at the centre of the examination in the context of the political actuality in which it was written and circulated.

Keywords: beneficial ideology, publicans, Marcus Cicero, Quintus Cicero, province of Asia.