<OL TYPE="1"><LI>a renter or farmer of taxes<OL TYPE="a"><LI>among the Romans, usually a man of equestrian rank</OL><LI>a tax gatherer, collector of taxes or tolls, one employed by a publican or farmer general in the collection of taxes. The tax collectors were as a class, detested not only by the Jews, but by other nations also, both on account of their employment and of the harshness, greed, and deception, with which they did their job.</OL>