Many scholars have asserted that imperial authorities of the Later Roman Empire compelled curiales, the well-known prosperous civic aristocracy, to pay up "any" arrears of taxpayers under their control out of their own pockets, which led eventually to their ruin. In this paper, which focuses on Late Antique Egypt, I try to refute these assertions mainly through the re-examination of some papyri which these scholars have called "obvious" proof of this compulsory taxation(1)and to re-consider the curiales' local power in later Roman society as more positive than previously thought in the light of new evidence concerning their own compulsory measures on taxpayers(2). The following are my conclusions. (1) Legal texts(Codices Theodosianus et Iustinianus)tell us that the curiales in charge of tax collection were not compelled to pay up "any" arrears out of their own pockets(unusquisque decurio ne pro alio conveniatur cf. CI.4.46.1; 10.6.3; CT.11.7.2; 1,7; CI.11.57.1), but to compensate for losses resulting from their own neglect of duties(CT. 12. 6. 1 et al.). In accordance with these regulations, the papyri, which have wrongly been regarded as the proof of the compulsion to make them pay up any arrears(WChr.281; 424), show us that what they were actually compelled to make up were not any arrears but just losses from their own neglect. In fact, these and other documents(PLips. 62 ; PFlor. 95 ; CT. 11. 29 et al.)make it clear that, both because of their lack of compulsory measures and indifference to arrears, the imperial authorities could not be so harsh to the curiales as to press them to pay off all arrears. The imperial authorities even remitted arrears repeatedly, except when they faced cases of want which were rare in practice. (2) On the other hand, many papyri prove that the curiales, by exclusively assuming the posts of praepositi pagi, which were free from close imperial control, could and did dispose of effective powers and measures to compel village-officials (komarches, sitologos, apaitetes) to pay off all taxes. Firstly, they had close control over the entire process of tax-collection from the initial stage of the nominations of village-officials to the final stage of the settlement of accounts(cf. WChr. 406 ; P. Cair. hid. 9 et al.). Secondly, they could claim the payment of any arrears from village-officials on their own authority(cf. WChr. 406 ; P. Cair. Isid. 68 et al.). Finally, they employed their own compulsory measures, i. e. their own deputies (foethoi) , policemen (symmachoi), soldiers(stratiotai)and prisons not only to compel village-officials and taxpayers to pay off all taxes but also to keep them obedient to public order in rural areas(POxy. 3384-3429 et al.). These powers and measures all made curiales far from ruined, but rather more powerful locally. Later, some well-prepared curiales were able to establish their own oikoi-powers and to become imperial aristocracy(honorati)as were the Apions in the 6th century.