What is "publicans"

Usage examples of "publicans".

Duly next morning the rosy-fingered Aurora drew the gold and crimson curtains of the east, and the splendid Apollo, stepping forth from his chamber, took the reins of his unrivalled team, and driving four-in-hand through the sky, like a great swell as he is, took small note of the staring hucksters and publicans by the road-side, and sublimely overlooked the footsore and ragged pedestrians that crawl below his level.

In that elegant and eminently respectable place, upholstered and decorated with faultless taste, there was not a hint of publicans and sinners.

As he stood before that throng of publicans and sinners, gathered from the slums of the city, and, with his fine face lighted up with thought and sympathy, spoke to them the truth in such a way that they understood it and felt its power, one could scarcely have believed that but two years before he had been dragged from a drunken brawl to the common jail.

The text about publicans and sinners has always been very carelessly used to justify a lot of imprudence.

Our effort has been compromised in advance by too many greedy procurators and publicans, too many suspicious senators, too many brutal centurions.