The Roman historians Suetonius and Cassius Dio record that in 23 BC, Augustus prepared a "rationarium" (account) which listed public revenues, the amounts of cash in the "aerarium" (treasury), in the provincial "fisci" (tax officials), and in the hands of the "publicani" (public contractors); and that it included the names of the freedmen and slaves from whom a detailed account could be obtained. The closeness of this information to the executive authority of the emperor is attested by Tacitus' statement that it was written out by Augustus himself. 