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individual or group of individuals formed a corporation and bid for the tax revenues of a particular region.  This accomplished several things. It transferred the work and worry of collecting the taxes to another party. It also guaranteed a given level of revenues. Thus, Roman officials  knew with certainty how much would come from a particular Provence and could budget accordingly. Meanwhile these tax corporations subdivided and resold regional taxing rights which were subdivided again and again down to the local administrator who actually collected the money. As it moved back upstream, each succeeding level skimmed a little off and passed the rest up t he ladder not unlike the Mafia.
    Regardless of how the taxes were applied or what was being taxed, then as now the money ultimately came from the pockets of individuals. And, the more individuals, the more revenue that could be collected. So those at the top of the pyramid wanted an accurate count of the population so they could estimate future income. Caesar Augustus was no slouch in this department. In his Lives of the Caesars , Roman Historian, Seutonius , reports that Augustus, “…revived the office of the Censor which had long been disused and whose duty it had formerly been to take an account of the number of people.” During his 44- year reign, Augustus took three censuses…only slightly less frequently than the United States does.
    Trying to Date Luke’s Census
    To date the census Luke is speaking of, we first must examine the text. The key phrase is, “ This was th e first enrollment, when Quirin ius was governor of Syria .” Luke used the Greek word protos , meaning foremost (in time, place, order or importance) — before, beginning, best, chief, first (of all), or former. Unfortunately, the early translators of the New Testament didn’t concern themselves with the possibility of a historical conflict posed by their use of the word first . If they had, the passage might have read something like, “This was the census before the one taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.” This would have eliminated any confusion as to which census he was speaking of.
    Caesar Augustus’ tax of 6 AD
    The Roman Historian, Dio Cassius, writes that Caesar Augustus decreed a census for purposes of taxation for all the inhabited earth, essentially the Roman Empire, in 6 AD. By 5 AD the military expenditures for the Roman legions had exceeded available income, and “Augustus lacked funds for all these troops.” ( Dio Cassius, Roman History LV 24:9) To overcome this deficit, Augustus “established the tax of 5%, on the inheritances and bequests which should be left by people at their death to any except very near relatives or very poor persons.” Dio Cassius claims to have found references to this tax set down in Caesar's memoranda.
    It was, in fact, “ a method which had been introduced once before, but had been abolished later, and was now revived. In this way, then, he increased the revenues.” (Roman History LV 25:5-6) Establishment and collection of such a tax would requi r e a census to register transferable assets, such as land, and to record genealogies to establish who was and was not “ a very near relative . ”
    Josephus, in his Antiquities, notes the response to this decree in Judea, “Now Cyrenius , a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them till he had been consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this time into Syria, with a few others, being sent by Caesar to be a judge of that nation, and to take an account of their substance. Coponius also, a man of the equestrian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power over the Jews. Moreover, Cyrenius came himself into Judea, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their substance, and to dispose of Archelaus ’ money; but the Jews, although at the beginning they took the report of