
Study of Matthew and Simon
At the time of Jesus, the Roman government had publicans, chief tax collectors who were charged with the responsibility of collecting the taxes in a region. Zaccheus is an example of a chief tax collector in the Bible. In turn, they would employ many different people in the region to actually collect the taxes. There were a multitude of taxes: everyone over a certain age was taxed with the exception of the elderly, there were travel taxes on roads, import taxes on multiple products, food taxes, etc.