CENSOR

( τιμητής ), the name of two magistrates of high rank in the Roman republic. Their office was called Censura ( τιμητεία or τιμητία ). The Census , which was a register of Roman citizens and of their property, was first established by Servius Tullius, the fifth king of Rome. After the expulsion of the kings it was taken by the consuls; and special magistrates were not appointed for the purpose of taking it till the year B.C. 443. The reason of this alteration was owing to the appointment in the preceding year of tribuni militum with consular power in place of the consuls; and as these tribunes might be plebeians, the patricians deprived the consuls, and consequently their representatives, the tribunes, of the right of taking the census, and entrusted it to two magistrates, called Censores , who were to be chosen exclusively from the patricians. The magistracy continued to be a patrician one till B.C. 351, when C. Marcius Rutilus was the first plebeian censor. Twelve years afterwards, B.C. 339, it was provided by one of the Publilian laws, that one of the censors must nece arily be a plebeian, but it was not till B.C. 280 that a plebeian censor performed the solemn purification of the people ( lustrum con did it ). In B.C. 131 the two censors were for the first time plebeians.—The censors were elected in the comitia centu riata held under the presidency of a consul. As a general principle, the only persons eligible to the office were those who had previously been consuls; but a few exceptions occur. At first there was no law to prevent a person being censor a second time; but the only person, who was twice elected to the office, was C. Marcius Rutilus in B.C. 265; and he brought forward a law in this year, enacting that no one should be chosen censor a second time, and received in consequence the surname of Censor in us.—The censorship is distinguished from all other Roman magistracies by the length of time during which it was held. The censors were originally chosen for a whole lustrum, that is, a period of five years; but their office was limited to eighteen months, as early as ten years after its institution ( B.C. 433), by a law of the dictator Mam. Aemilius Mamercinus. The censors also held a very peculiar position with respect to rank and dignity. No imperium was bestowed upon them, and accordingly they had no lictors. The jus censurae was granted to them by a lex centu riata , and not by the curiae, and in that respect they were inferior in power to the consuls and praetors. But notwithstanding this, the censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the dictatorship; it was a sanctus magi stratus , to which the deepest reverence was due. They po e ed of course the sella curulis. The funeral of a censor was always conducted with great pomp and splendour, and hence a fun us censorium was voted even to the emperors.—The censorship continued in existence for 421 years, namely, from B.C. 443 to B.C. 22; but during this period many lustra pa ed by without any censor being chosen at all. Its power was limited by one of the laws of the tribune Clodius ( B.C. 58). After the year B.C. 22 the emperors discharged the duties of the censorship under the name of Praefectura Morum .—The duties of the censors may be divided into three cla es, all of which were however closely connected with one another: I. The Census , or register of the citizens and of their property, in which were included the lectio senatus , and the recognitio equitum ; II. The Regimen Morum ; and III. The administration of the finances of the state , under which were cla ed the superintendence of the public buildings and the erection of all new public works.—I. The Census , the first and principal duty of the censors, for which the proper expre ion is censum agere , was always held in the Campus Martius, and from the year B.C. 435 in a special building called Villa Public a . After the auspicia had been taken, the citizens were summoned by a public crier ( praeco ) to appear before the censors. Each tribe was called up separately, and every paterfamilias had to appear in person before the censors, who were seated in their curule chairs. The census was conducted ad arbitrium censor is ; but the censors laid down certain rules, sometimes called leges censui censendo , in which mention was made of the different kinds of property subject to the census, and in what way their value was to be estimated. According to these laws each citizen had to give an account of himself, of his family, and of his property upon oath, ex animi sententia . First he had to give his full name ( praenomen , nomen , and cognomen ) and that of his father, or if he were a freedman that of his patron, and he was likewise obliged to state his age. He was then asked, Tu, ex animi tui sententia, uxorem habes? and if married he had to give the name of his wife, and likewise the number, names, and ages of his children, if any. Single women ( viduae ) and orphans ( orb i orbaeque ) were represented by their tutores; their names were entered in separate lists, and they were not included in the sum total of capita. After a citizen had stated his name, age, family, ., he then had to give an account of all his property, so far as it was subject to the census. In making this statement he was said censere or censer i , as a deponent, “to value or estimate himself,” or as a pa ive “to be valued or estimated:” the censor, who received the statement, was also said censere , as well as accipere censum . Only such things were liable to the census ( censui censendo ) as were property ex jure Quiritium . Land formed the most important article in the census; next came slaves and cattle. The censors also po e ed the right of calling for a return of such objects as had not usually been given in, such as clothing, jewels, and carriages. We can hardly doubt that the censors po e ed the power of setting a higher valuation on the property than the citizens themselves had put. The tax ( tributum ) was usually one per you sand upon the property entered in the books of the censors; but on one occasion the censors, as a punishment, compelled a person to pay eight per you sand ( octuplicato censu , Liv. iv. 24). A person who voluntarily absented himself from the census, and thus became in census , was subject to the severest punishment. It is probable that service in the army was a valid excuse for absence. After the censors had received the names of all the citizens with the amount of their property, they then had to make out the lists of the tribes, and also of the cla es and centuries; for by the legislation of Servius Tullius the position of each citizen in the state was determined by the amount of his property. [ Comitia Centu riata . ] These lists formed a most important part of the Tabulae Censoriae , under which name were included all the documents connected in any way with the discharge of the censors’ duties. These lists, as far at least as they were connected with the finances of the state, were deposited in the aerarium, which was the temple of Saturn; but the regular depository for all the archives of the censors was in earlier times the Atrium Liber tat is, near the Villa public a, and in later times the temple of the Nymphs. The censors had also to make out the lists of the senators for the ensuing lustrum, or till new censors were appointed; striking out the names of such as they considered unworthy, and making additions to the body from those who were qualified. [ Senatus . ] In the same manner they held a review of the equites equo publico, and added and removed names as they judged proper. [ Equites . ] After the lists had been completed, the number of citizens was counted up, and the sum total announced; and accordingly we find that, in the account of a census, the number of citizens is likewise usually given. They are in such cases spoken of as capita , sometimes with the addition of the word civium , and sometimes not; and hence to be registered in the census was the same thing as caput habere . [ Caput . ]—II. Regimen Morum. This was the most important branch of the censors’ duties, and the one which caused their office to be the most revered and the most dreaded in the Roman state. It naturally grew out of the right which they po e ed of excluding unworthy persons from the lists of citizens. They were constituted the conservators of public and private virtue and morality; they were not simply to prevent crime or particular acts of immorality, but their great object was to maintain the old Roman character and habits, the mos majorum . The proper expre ion for this branch of their power was regimen morum , which was called in the times of the empire cur a or praefectura morum . The punishment inflicted by the censors in the exercise of this branch of their duties was called Nota or Notatio , or Animadversio Censor i a . In inflicting it they were guided only by their conscientious convictions of duty; they had to take an oath that they would act neither through partiality nor favour; and in addition to this, they were bound in every case to state in their lists, opposite the name of the guilty citizen, the cause of the punishment inflicted on him,— Subscriptio censor i a . The consequence of such a nota was only ignominia and not infamia [ Infamia ], and the censorial verdict was not a judicium or res judicata , for its effects were not lasting, but might be removed by the following censors, or by a lex. A nota censor i a was moreover not valid, unle both censors agreed. The ignominia was thus only a transitory capitis deminutio, which does not appear even to have deprived a magistrate of his office, and certainly did not disqualify persons labouring under it for obtaining a magistracy, for being appointed as judices by the praetor, or for serving in the Roman armies. This superintendence of the conduct of Roman citizens extended so far, that it embraced the whole of the public and private life of the citizens. Thus we have instances of their censuring or punishing persons for not marrying, for breaking a promise of marriage, for divorce, for bad conduct during marriage, for improper education of children, for living in an extravagant and luxurious manner, and for many other irregularities in private life. Their influence was still more powerful in matters connected with the public life of the citizens. Thus we find them censuring or punishing magistrates who were forgetful of the dignity of their office or guilty of bribery, as well as persons who were guilty of improper conduct towards magistrates, of perjury, and of neglect of their duties both in civil and military life. The punishments inflicted by the censors are generally divided into four cla es:—1. Motio or ejectio e senatu , or the exclusion of a man from the number of senators. This punishment might either be a simple exclusion from the list of senators, or the person might at the same time be excluded from the tribes and degraded to the rank of an aerarian. The censors in their new lists omitted the names of such senators as they wished to exclude, and in reading these new lists in public, pa ed over the names of those who were no longer to be senators. Hence the expre ion praeteriti sena to res is equivalent to e senatu eject i . 2. The ademptio equi , or the taking away the equus public us from an eques. This punishment might likewise be simple, or combined with the exclusion from the tribes and the degradation to the rank of an aerarian. [ Equites . ] 3. The motio e tribu , or the exclusion of a person from his tribe. If the further degradation to the rank of an aerarian was combined with the motio e tribu, it was always expre ly stated. 4. The fourth punishment was called referre in aerarios or facere aliquem aerarium , and might be inflicted on any person who was thought by the censors to deserve it. [ Aerarii . ]—III. The Administration of the Finances of the State , was another part of the censors’ office. In the first place the tributum , or property-tax, had to be paid by each citizen according to the amount of his property registered in the census, and, accordingly, the regulation of this tax naturally fell under the jurisdiction of the censors. [ Tributum . ] They also had the superintendence of all the other revenues of the state, the vectigalia , such as the tithes paid for the public lands, the salt-works, the mines, the customs, . [ Vectigalia . ] All these branches of the revenue the censors were accustomed to let out to the highest bidder for the space of a lustrum or five years. The act of letting was called venditio or locatio , and seems to have taken place in the month of March. The censors also po e ed the right, though probably not without the concurrence of the senate, of imposing new vectigalia, and even of selling the land belonging to the state. The censors, however, did not receive the revenues of the state. All the public money was paid into the aerarium, which was entirely under the jurisdiction of the senate; and all disbursements were made by order of this body, which employed the quaestors as its officers. [ Aerarium ; Senatus .]—In one important department the censors were entrusted with the expenditure of the public money; though the actual payments were no doubt made by the quaestors. The censors had the general superintendence of all the public buildings and works ( opera public a ); and to meet the expenses connected with this part of their duties, the senate voted them a certain sum of money or certain revenues, to which they were restricted, but which they might at the same time employ according to their discretion. They had to see that the temples and all other public buildings were in a good state of repair ( aedes sacras tueri and sarta tecta exigere ), that no public places were encroached upon by the occupation of private persons ( loca tueri ), and that the aqua educts, roads, drains, . were properly attended to. The repairs of the public works and the keeping of them in proper condition were let out by the censors by public auction to the lowest bidder. The persons who undertook the contract were called conduct ores , mancipes , red empt ores , susceptores , .; and the duties they had to discharge were specified in the Leges Censoriae . The censors had also to superintend the expenses connected with the worship of the gods. In these respects it is not easy to define with accuracy the respective duties of the censors and aediles: but it may be remarked in general that the superintendence of the aediles had more of a police character, while that of the censors had reference to all financial matters.—After the censors had performed their various duties and taken the census, the lustrum or solemn purification of the people followed. When the censors entered upon their office, they drew lots to see which of them should perform this purification ( lustrum facere or condere ), but both censors were obliged of course to be present at the ceremony. [ Lustrum . ]—In the Roman and Latin colonies and in the municipia there were censors, who likewise bore the name of quinquennales . They are spoken of under Coloni a . A census was sometimes taken in the provinces, even under the republic; but there seems to have been no general census taken in the provinces till the time of August us. At Rome the census still continued to be taken under the empire, but the old ceremonies connected with it were no longer continued, and the ceremony of the lustration was not performed after the time of Vespas i an.—The word census , besides the meaning of “valuation” of a person’s estate, has other significations, which must be briefly mentioned: 1. It signified the amount of a person’s property, and hence we read of census senator i us , the estate of a senator; census equestris , the estate of an eques. 2. The lists of the censors. 3. The tax which depended upon the valuation in the census.