III. CENSORS.

TWO magistrates were first created, A. U. 312, for taking an account of the number of the people, and the value of their fortunes, (censui agendo); whence they were called CENSORES, Liv. et Fest. (CENSOR, ad cujus censionem, id est arbitrium, censeretur populus, Varr. L. L. iv. 14.) As the consuls, being engaged in wars abroad, or commotions at home, had not leisure for that business, (non consulibus operæ erat. sc. pretium, i. e. iis non vacabat id negotium agere); the census had been intermitted for 17 years, Liv. iii. 22. iv. 8. The censors at first continued in office for five years, Ibid. But afterwards, lest they should abuse their authority, a law was passed by Mamercus Æmilius the dictator, ordaining, that they should be elected every five years; but that their power should continue only a year and a half, Ex quinquennali annua ac semestris censura facta est), Liv. iv. 24. ix. 33.

The censors had all the ensigns of the consuls, except the lictors.

The censors were usually chosen from the most respectable persons of consular dignity; at first only from among the patricians, but afterwards likewise from the plebeians. The first plebeian censor was C. Marcius Rutilus, A. U. 404, who also had been the first plebeian dictator, Liv. vii. 22. Afterwards a law was made, that one of the censors should always be a plebeian. Sometimes both censors were plebeians, Liv. Epit. 59. and sometimes those were created censors, who had neither been consuls nor prætors, Liv. xxvii. 6. and 11. but not so after the second Punic war.

The last censors, namely Paulus and Plancus, under Augustus, are said to have been private persons, (PRIVATI), Dio. liv. 2. not that they had never born any public office before, but to distinguish them from the Emperor; all besides him being called by that name, Vell. ii. 99. Suet. Tacit. et Plin. passim.

The power of the censors at first was small; but afterwards it became very great. All the orders of the state were subject to them, (censoribus subjecti, Liv. iv. 24.) Hence the censor

ship is called by Plutarch, the summit of all preferments (omnium honorum apex, vel fastigium), in Cat. Maj. and by Cicero, magistra pudoris et modestia, in Pis. 4. The title of Censor was esteemed more honourable than that of Consul; as appears from ancient coins and statues and it was reckoned the chief ornament of nobility, to be sprung from a censorian family, Valer, viii. 13. Tacit. Ann. iii. 28. Hist. iii.

9.

The office of the censors was chiefly to estimate the fortunes, and to inspect the morals of the citizens, Cic. de leg. iii. 3.

The censors performed the census in the Campus Martius. Seated in their curule chairs, and attended by their clerks and other officers, they ordered the citizens, divided into their classes and centuries, and also into their tribes, Liv. xxix. 37. to be called (citari) before them by a herald, and to give an account of their fortunes, family, &c. according to the institution of Servius Tullius. (See p. 79.) At the same time they reviewed the senate and equestrian order, supplied the vacant places in both, and inflicted various marks of disgrace (notas inurebant) on those who deserved it. A senator they excluded from the senate-house, (senatu movebant, vel ejiciebant), (see p. 6.) an eques they deprived of his public horse, (equum adimebant, (see p. 28.) and any other citizen they removed from a more honourable to a less honourable tribe, (tribu movebant); or deprived him of all the privileges of a Roman citizen, except liberty, (ærarium faciebant, Liv. Qui per hoc non esset in âlbo centuria suæ, sed ad hoc esset civis tantum, ut pro capite suo tributi nomine æra penderet, Ascon. in Cic.) or, as it is otherwise expressed, in tabulas Caritum, vel inter Carites referebant, i. e. jure suffragii privabant; Gell. xvi. 13. Strab. v. p. 220. Hence Carita cera digni, worthless persons, Horat. Ep.1.6. 63. But this last phrase does not often occur. Cicero and Livy a'most always use Erarium facere; in velinter ærarios referre. This mark of disgrace was also inflicted on a senator or an eques, and was then always added to the mark of disgrace peculiar to their order; thus, Censores Mamercum, qui fuerat dictator, tribu moverunt, octuplicatoque censu, (i.e. having made the valuation of his estate eight times more than it ought, that thus he might be obliged to pay eight times more tribute), ærarium fecerunt, Liv. iv. 24. Omnes, quos senatu moverunt, quibusque equos ademerunt, ærarios fecerunt, et tribu moverunt, xlii. 10. The censors themselves did not sometimes agree about their powers in this respect; Claudius negabat, Suffragii lationem injussu populi censorem cui

quma

quam homini adimere posse. Neque enim si tribu movere posset, quod sit nihil aliud quam mutare jubere tribum, ideo omnibus v. etxxx.tribubus emovere posse: id est, civitatem libertatemque eripere, non ubi censeatur finire, sed censu excludere. Hac inter ipsos disceptata, &c. Liv. xlv. 15.

The censors could inflict these marks of disgrace upon what evidence, and for what cause they judged proper; but, when they expelled from the senate, they commonly annexed a reason to their censure, Liv. xxxix. 42. which was called SUBSCRIPTIO CENSORIA, Cic. pro Cluent. 43, & 44. Sometimes an appeal was made from their sentence to the people, Plutarch. in T. Q. Flamin.

The censors not only could hinder one another from inflicting any censure, (ut alter de senatu moveri velit, alter retineat; ut alter in ærarios referri, aut tribu moveri jubeat, alter vetet, Cic. ibid. Tres ejecti de senatu; retinuit quosdam Lepidus a collega præteritos, Liv. xl. 51.) but they might even stigmatise one another, Liv. xxix. 37.

The citizens in the colonies and free towns were there inrolled by their own censors, according to the form prescribed by the Roman censors, (ex formula" ab Romanis_censoribus data), and an account of them was transmitted to Rome, Liv. xxix. 15. So that the senate might see at one view the wealth and condition of the whole empire, ibid. 37.

When the censors took an estimate of the fortunes of the citizens, they were said, censum agere vel habere; CENSERE populi avitates, soboles, familias, pecuniasque, Cic. legg. iii. 3. Referre in censum, Liv. xxxix. 44. Flor. i. 6. or, censui ascribere, Tacit. Annal. xiii. 51. The citizens, when they gave in to the censors an estimate of their fortunes, &c. were said CENSERI modum agri, mancipia, pecunias, &c. sc. secundum vel quod ad, Cic. Flacc. 32. s. 80. Profiteri; in censum deferre vel dedicare, Id. Arch. 4. Senec. Ep. 95. annos deferre vel censeri: thus, CL. annos census est Claudii Cæsaris censura T. Fullonius Bononiensis;idque collatis censibus quos ante detulerat, verum apparuit, Plin. vii. 49. s. 50. Sometimes also censere; thus, Prædia censere, to give in an estimate of one's farms, Cic. Flacc. 32. Liv. xlv. 15. Prædia censui censendo, sc. apta; i. e. quorum census censeri, pretium æstimari ordinis et tributi causâ potest; farms, of which one is the just proprietor, ibid. Hence censeri, to be

valued or esteemed, to be held in estimation; Cic. Arch. 6. Val. Max. v. 3. 3. Ovid. Am. ii. 15. 2. Senec. Ep. 75. Pkn. Pan. 15. De quo censeris, amicus, from whom or cn whose

K

account

account you are valued, Ovid. Pont. ii. 5. ult. Privatus illis CENSUS erat brevis, their private fortune was small, Horat. Od. ii. 15. 13. exiguus, Ep. i. 1. 43. tenuis, Id. 7. 76. Equestris, v. -ter, the fortune of an Eques; CCCC. millia nummum, 400,000 sesterces, Plin. Ep. i. 19. Senatorius, of a senator, Suet. Vesp. 17. Homo sine censu, Cic. Flacc. 52. Ex censu tributa conferre, Id. Verr. ii. 63. Cultus major censu, Horat. Sat. ii. 3. 323. Dat. census honores, Ovid. Amor. iii. 8. 56. Census partus per vulnera, a fortune procured in war, ibid. g. Demittere censum in viscera, i. e. bona obligurire, to eat up, Met. viii. 846. Romani census populi, the treasury, Lucan. iii. 157. Breves extendere census, to make a small fortune go far, Martial. xii. 6.

ld.

The censors divided the citizens into classes and centuries, according to their fortunes. They added new tribes to the old, when it was necessary, Liv. x. 9. Epit. 19. They let the public lands and taxes, (see p. 64.) and the regulations which they prescribed to the farmers-general (manicipibus v. publicanis) were called Leges vel Tabula Censoria, Cic. Verr. iii. 6. in Rull. i. 2. Polyb. vi. 15.

The censors agreed with undertakers about building and repairing, the public works, such as temples, porticos, &c. (opera publica ædificanda et reficienda REDEMPTORIBUS locabant); which they examined when finished, (probaverunt, i. e. rectè et ex ordine facta esse pronunciaverunt); and caused to be kept in good repair, (sarta tecta exigebant, sc. et.) Liv. iv. 22. xl. 51. xlii. 3. xlv. 15. The expences allowed by the public for executing these works, were called ULTROTRIBUTA, Liv. xxxix. 44. xliii. 16. Senec. Benef. iv. 1. Hence Ultrotributa locare, to let them, or to promise a certain sum for executing them; conducere, to undertake them, ibid.

The censors had the charge of paving the streets, and making the public roads, bridges, aquæducts, &c. Liv. ix. 29. & 43. xli. 27. They likewise made contracts about furnishing the public sacrifices, Plutarch. in Cat, and horses for the use of the curule magistrates, Lv. xxiv. 18. Fest. in voc. EQUI CURULES: also about feeding the geese which were kept in the Capitol, in commemoration of their having preserved it, when the dogs had failed to give the alarm, Cic. pro Rosc. Am. 20. Plin. x. 22. s. 26. xxix. 4s. 14.

They took care that private persons should not occupy what belonged to the public, Liv. iv. 8. And if any one refused

to

to obey their sentence, they could fine him, and distrain his effects till he made payment, Liv. xliii. 16.

The imposing of taxes is often ascribed to the censors; but this was done by a decree of the senate and the order of the people; without which the censors had not even the right of laying out the public money, nor of letting the public lands, Liv. xxvii. 11. xl. 46. xli. 27. xliv. 16. Polyb. vi. 10. Hence the senate sometimes cancelled their leases, (locationes inducebant), when they disapproved of them, Id. xxxix. 44. For the senate had the chief direction in all these matters, ibid.

The censor had no right to propose laws, or to lay any thing before the senate or people, unless by means of the consul or prætor, or a tribune of the commons, Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxv. 17. Liv. loc. cit.

The power of the censors did not extend to public crimes, or to such things as came under the cognisance of the civil magistrate, and were punishable by law; but only to matters of a private nature, and of less importance: as, if one did not cultivate his ground properly, Gell. iv. 12. if an eques did not take proper care of his horse, which was called ÎNCURIA or Impolitia, ibid. if one lived too long unmarried, (the fine for which was called ES UXORIUM, Festus); or contracted debt without cause, &c. Valer. Max. ii. 9. and particularly, if any one had not behaved with sufficient bravery in war, Liv. xxiv. 18. or was of dissolute morals, Cic. Cluent. 47, above all, if a person had violated his oath, Liv. ibid. et Cic. Off. iii. 31. Gell. vii. 18.

The accused were usually permitted to make their defence, (causam dicere), Liv. loc. cit.

The sentence of the censors, (ANIMADVERSIO CENSORIA vel judicium censoris), only affected the rank and character of persons. It was therefore properly called IGNOMINIA, (quòd in nomine tantum, i. e. dignitate versabatur), and in later times had no other effect, than of putting a man to the blush, (nihil fere damnato afferebat præter ruborem, Cic.)

It was not fixed and unalterable, as the decision of a court of law, (mon pro re judicatâ habebatur); but might be either taken off by the next censors, or rendered ineffectual by the verdict of a jury, or by the suffrages of the Roman people. Thus we find C. Gæta, who had been extruded the senate by the censors, A. U. 639, the very next lustrum himself made censor, Cic. pro. Cluent. 42. See P. 1. Sometimes the senate added force to the feeble sentence of the censors, (inerti senso