Censor (ancient Rome)
Encyclopedia
The censor was an officer in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census
, supervising public morality
, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances.
The censors' regulation of public morality is the origin of the modern meaning of the words "censor" and "censorship."
, sixth king of Rome
. After the abolition of the monarchy and the founding of the Republic
, the consul
s had responsibility for the census until 443 BC. In 442 BC, no consuls were elected, but military tribune
s with consular power were appointed instead; this was a move by the plebeians to try to attain higher magistracies: only patricians could be elected consuls, while some military tribunes were plebeians. To avoid the possibility of plebeians obtaining control of the census, the patricians removed the right to take the census from the consuls and tribunes, and appointed for this duty two magistrates, called censores (censors), elected exclusively from the patricians in Rome.
The magistracy continued to be controlled by patricians until 351 BC, when Gaius Marcius Rutilus
was appointed the first plebeian censor. Twelve years afterwards in 339 BC
, one of the Publilian laws required that one censor had to be a plebeian. Despite this, no plebeian censor performed the solemn purification of the people (the "lustrum"; Livy Periochae 13) until 280 BC. In 131 BC, for the first time, both censors were plebeians.
There were two censors, because the two consuls had previously taken the census together. If one of the censors died during his term of office, another was chosen to replace him, just as with consuls. This happened only once, in 393 BC. However the Gaul
s captured Rome in that lustrum
(five-year period), and the Romans thereafter regarded such replacement as "an offense against religion". From then on, if one of the censors died, his colleague resigned, and two new censors were chosen to replace them.
suggests that the censors were at first elected by the Curiate Assembly
, and that the Assembly's selections were confirmed by the Centuriate; but William Smith
believes that "there is no authority for this supposition, and the truth of it depends entirely upon the correctness of[Niebuhr's] views respecting the election of the consuls". Both censors had to be elected on the same day, and accordingly if the voting for the second was not finished in the same day, the election of the first was invalidated, and a new assembly had to be held.
The assembly for the election of the censors was held under different auspice
s from those at the election of the consuls and praetor
s, so the censors were not regarded as their colleagues, although they likewise possessed the maxima auspicia
. The assembly was held by the new consuls shortly after they began their term of office; and the censors, as soon as they were elected and the censorial power had been granted to them by a decree of the Centuriate Assembly (lex centuriata), were fully installed in their office.
As a general principle, the only ones eligible for the office of censor were those who had previously been consuls, but there were a few exceptions. At first, there was no law to prevent a person being censor twice, but the only person who was elected to the office twice was Gaius Marcius Rutilus
in 265 BC
. In that year, he originated a law stating that no one could be elected censor twice. In consequence of this, he received the cognomen
of Censorinus
.
) their office was limited to eighteen months by a law of the dictator
Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus. The censors were also unique with respect to rank and dignity. They had no imperium
, and accordingly no lictor
s. Their rank was granted to them by the Centuriate Assembly, and not by the curia
e, and in that respect they were inferior in power to the consuls and praetors.
Notwithstanding this, the censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the dictatorship; it was a "sacred magistracy" (sanctus magistratus), to which the deepest reverence was due. The high rank and dignity which the censorship obtained was due to the various important duties gradually entrusted to it, and especially to its possessing the regimen morum, or general control over the conduct and the morals of the citizens. In the exercise of this power, they were regulated solely by their own views of duty, and were not responsible to any other power in the state.
The censors possessed of course the "curule chair
" (sella curulis), but there is some doubt with respect to their official dress. A well-known passage of Polybius describes the use of the imagines at funerals; we may conclude that a consul or praetor wore the purple-bordered toga praetexta, one who triumphed the embroidered toga picta, and the censor a purple toga peculiar to him; but other writers speak of their official dress as being the same as that of the other higher magistrates. The funeral of a censor was always conducted with great pomp and splendour, and hence a "censorial funeral" (funus censorium) was voted even to the emperors.
to 22 BC
; but during this period many lustra passed by without any censor being chosen at all. According to one statement, the office was abolished by Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Although the authority on which this statement rests is not of much weight, the fact itself is probable, since there was no census during the two lustra which elapsed from Sulla's dictatorship to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey)
's first consulship (82
–70 BC
), and any strict "imposition of morals" would have been found inconvenient to the aristocracy that supported Sulla.
If the censorship was done away with by Sulla, it was at any rate restored in the consulship of Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus
. Its power was limited by one of the laws of the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher
(58 BC
), which prescribed certain regular forms of proceeding before the censors in expelling a person from the Roman Senate
, and required that the censors be in agreement to exact this punishment. This law, however, was repealed in the third consulship of Pompey in 52 BC
, on the urging of his colleague Caecilius Metellus Scipio
, but the office of the censorship never recovered its former power and influence.
During the civil wars which followed soon afterwards, no censors were elected; it was only after a long interval that they were again appointed, namely in 22 BC
, when Augustus
caused Lucius Munatius Plancus
and Aemilius Lepidus Paullus
to fill the office. This was the last time that such magistrates were appointed; the emperors in future discharged the duties of their office under the name of Praefectura Morum ("prefect of the morals").
Some of the emperors sometimes took the name of censor when they held a census of the Roman people; this was the case with Claudius
, who appointed the elder Vitellius
as his colleague, and with Vespasian
, who likewise had a colleague in his son Titus
. Domitian
assumed the title of "perpetual censor" (censor perpetuus), but this example was not imitated by succeeding emperors. In the reign of Decius
we find the elder Valerian
nominated to the censorship, but Valerian was never actually elected censor.
The original business of the censorship was at first of a much more limited kind, and was restricted almost entirely to taking the census, but the possession of this power gradually brought with it fresh power and new duties, as is shown below. A general view of these duties is briefly expressed in the following passage of Cicero: "Censores populi aevitates, soboles, familias pecuniasque censento: urbis templa, vias, aquas, aerarium, vectigalia tuento: populique partes in tribus distribunto: exin pecunias, aevitates, ordines patiunto: equitum, peditumque prolem describunto: caelibes esse prohibento: mores populi regunto: probrum in senatu ne relinquunto." This can be translated roughly as: "The Censors are to determine the generations, origins, families, and properties of the people; they are to (watch over/protect) the city's temples, roads, waters, treasury, and taxes; they are to divide the people into three parts; next, they are to (allow/approve) the properties, generations, and ranks [of the people]; they are to describe the offspring of knights and footsoldiers; they are to forbid being unmarried; they are to guide the behavior of the people; they are not to overlook abuse in the Senate."
, and from the year 435 BC
onwards, in a special building called Villa Publica
, which was erected for that purpose by the second pair of censors, Gaius Furius Pacilus and Marcus Geganius Macerinus.
An account of the formalities with which the census was opened is given in a fragment of the Tabulae Censoriae, preserved by Varro. After the auspices had been taken, the citizens were summoned by a public crier to appear before the censors. Each tribe was called up separately, and the names in each tribe were probably taken according to the lists previously made out by the tribunes of the tribes. Every paterfamilias had to appear in person before the censors, who were seated in their curule chair
s, and those names were taken first which were considered to be of good omen, such as Valerius
, Salvius
, Statorius, etc.
The census was conducted according to the judgment of the censor (ad arbitrium censoris), 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, "declared from the heart".
First he had to give his full name (praenomen
, nomen
, and cognomen
) and that of his father, or if he were a Libertus ("freedman") that of his patron
, and he was likewise obliged to state his age. He was then asked, "You, declaring from your heart, do you have a wife?" 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 and orphans were represented by their guardians; their names were entered in separate lists, and they were not included in the sum total of heads.
After a citizen had stated his name, age, family, etc., he then had to give an account of all his property, so far as it was subject to the census. Only such things were liable to the census (censui censendo) as were property according to the Quiritarian law. At first, each citizen appears to have merely given the value of his whole property in general without entering into details; but it soon became the practice to give a minute specification of each article, as well as the general value of the whole.
Land formed the most important article of the census, but public land, the possession of which only belonged to a citizen, was excluded as not being Quiritarian property. If we may judge from the practice of the imperial period, it was the custom to give a most minute specification of all such land as a citizen held according to the Quiritarian law. He had to state the name and location of the land, and to specify what portion of it was arable, what meadow, what vineyard, and what olive-ground: and of the land thus described, he had to give his assessment of its value.
Slave
s and cattle formed the next most important item. The censors also possessed the right of calling for a return of such objects as had not usually been given in, such as clothing, jewels, and carriages. It has been doubted by some modern writers whether the censors possessed the power of setting a higher valuation on the property than the citizens themselves gave, but when we recollect the discretionary nature of the censors' powers, and the necessity almost that existed, in order to prevent fraud, that the right of making a surcharge should be vested in somebody's hands, we can hardly doubt that the censors had this power. It is moreover expressly stated that on one occasion they made an extravagant surcharge on articles of luxury; and even if they did not enter in their books the property of a person at a higher value than he returned it, they accomplished the same end by compelling him to pay a tax upon the property at a higher rate than others. The tax was usually one per thousand upon the property entered in the books of the censors, but on one occasion the censors compelled a person to pay eight per thousand as a punishment.
A person who voluntarily absented himself from the census was considered incensus and subject to the severest punishment. Servius Tullius
is said to have threatened such individuals with imprisonment and death, and in the Republican
period he might be sold by the state as a slave In the later times of the republic, a person who was absent from the census might be represented by another, and be thus registered by the censors. Whether the soldiers who were absent on service had to appoint a representative is uncertain. In ancient times, the sudden outbreaks of war prevented the census from being taken, because a large number of the citizens would necessarily be absent. It is supposed from a passage in Livy that in later times the censors sent commissioners into the provinces with full powers to take the census of the Roman soldiers there, but this seems to have been a special case. It is, on the contrary, probable from the way in which Cicero pleads the absence of Archias from Rome
with the army under Lucullus
, as a sufficient reason for his not having been enrolled in the census, 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 classes 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 Centuriata). 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, insofar as they were connected with the finances of the state, were deposited in the aerarium, which was the temple of Saturn; but the regular depositary for all the archives of the censors was in earlier times the Atrium Libertatis, near the Villa publica, and in later times the temple of the Nymphs.
Besides the division of the citizens into tribes, centuries, and classes, the censors had also to make out the lists of the senators
for the ensuing five years, 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. In the same manner they held a review of the Equestrians who received a horse from public funds (equites equo publico), and added and removed names as they judged proper. They also confirmed the princeps senatus
, or appointed a new one. The princeps himself had to be a former censor.
After the lists had been completed, the number of citizens was counted up, and the sum total announced. 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 ("heads"), sometimes with the addition of the word civium ("of the citizens"), and sometimes not. Hence, to be registered in the census was the same thing as "having a head" (caput habere).
each wrote works on the census in the imperial period; and several extracts from these works are given in a chapter in the Digest (50 15).
cura morum or praefectura morum) was the second most important branch of the censors' duties, and the one which caused their office to be one of the most revered and the most dreaded in the Roman state; hence they were also known as Castigatores ("chastisers"). It naturally grew out of the right which they possessed of excluding persons from the lists of citizens; for, as has been well remarked, "they would, in the first place, be the sole judges of many questions of fact, such as whether a citizen had the qualifications required by law or custom for the rank which he claimed, or whether he had ever incurred any judicial sentence, which rendered him infamous: but from thence the transition was easy, according to Roman notions, to the decisions of questions of right; such as whether a citizen was really worthy of retaining his rank, whether he had not committed some act as justly degrading as those which incurred the sentence of the law."
In this manner, the censors gradually assumed at least nominal complete superintendence over the whole public and private life of every citizen. They were constituted as the conservators of public morality; they were not simply to prevent crime or particular acts of immorality, but rather to maintain the traditional Roman character, ethics, and habits (mos majorum)—regimen morum also encompassed this protection of traditional ways, which was called in the times of the empire
cura ("supervision") or praefectura ("command"). The punishment inflicted by the censors in the exercise of this branch of their duties was called nota ("mark, letter") or notatio, or animadversio censoria ("censorial reproach"). In inflicting it, they were guided only by their conscientious convictions of duty; they had to take an oath that they would act biased by neither 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 censoria.
This part of the censors' office invested them with a peculiar kind of jurisdiction, which in many respects resembled the exercise of public opinion in modern times; for there are innumerable actions which, though acknowledged by every one to be prejudicial and immoral, still do not come within the reach of the positive laws of a country; as often said, "immorality does not equal illegality". Even in cases of real crimes, the positive laws frequently punish only the particular offence, while in public opinion the offender, even after he has undergone punishment, is still incapacitated for certain honours and distinctions which are granted only to persons of unblemished character.
Hence the Roman censors might brand a man with their "censorial mark" (nota censoria) in case he had been convicted of a crime in an ordinary court of justice, and had already suffered punishment for it. 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
(roughly "law"). A censorial mark was moreover not valid unless both censors agreed. The ignominia was thus only a transitory reduction of status, which does not even appear 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
. Mamercus Aemilius was thus, notwithstanding the reproach of the censors (animadversio censoria), made dictator
.
A person might be branded with a censorial mark in a variety of cases, which it would be impossible to specify, as in a great many instances it depended upon the discretion of the censors and the view they took of a case; and sometimes even one set of censors would overlook an offence which was severely chastised by their successors. But the offences which are recorded to have been punished by the censors are of a threefold nature.
A person who had been branded with a nota censoria, might, if he considered himself wronged, endeavour to prove his innocence to the censors, and if he did not succeed, he might try to gain the protection of one of the censors, that he might intercede on his behalf.
It was this authority of the Roman censors which eventually developed into the modern meaning of "Censor
" and "censorship
"—i.e., officials who review published material and forbid the publication of material judged to be contrary to "public morality" as the term is interpreted in a given political and social environment.
works, the mines, the customs, etc.
The censors typically auctioned off to the highest bidder for the space of a lustrum the collection of the tithes and taxes (tax farming
). This auctioning was called venditio or locatio, and seems to have taken place in the month of March, in a public place in Rome The terms on which they were let, together with the rights and duties of the purchasers, were all specified in the leges censoriae, which the censors published in every case before the bidding commenced. For further particulars see Publicani.
The censors also possessed the right, though probably not without the assent of the Senate, of imposing new vectigalia, and even of selling the land belonging to the state. It would thus appear that it was the duty of the censors to bring forward a budget for a five-year period, and to take care that the income of the state was sufficient for its expenditure during that time. In part, their duties resembled those of a modern minister of finance. 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 quaestor
s as its officers.
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 publica), 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, that no public places were encroached upon by the occupation of private persons, and that the aqueduct, roads, drains, etc. 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, just as the vectigalia were let out to the highest bidder. These expenses were called ultrotributa, and hence we frequently find vectigalia and ultrotributa contrasted with one another. The persons who undertook the contract were called conductores, mancipes, redemptores, susceptores, etc.; 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, even for instance the feeding of the sacred geese in the Capitol; these various tasks were also let out on contract.
Besides keeping existing public buildings and facilities in a proper state of repair, the censors were also in charge of constructing new ones, either for ornament or utility, both in Rome and in other parts of Italy, such as temples, basilica
e, theatre
s, porticoes, fora
, walls of towns, aqueducts, harbours, bridges, cloacae, roads, etc. These works were either performed by them jointly, or they divided between them the money, which had been granted to them by the senate. They were let out to contractors, like the other works mentioned above, and when they were completed, the censors had to see that the work was performed in accordance with the contract: this was called opus probare or in acceptum referre.
The aedile
s had likewise a superintendence over the public buildings, and 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 were more financial in subject matter.
, a 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; but both censors were of course obliged to be present at the ceremony.
Long after the Roman census was no longer taken, the Latin word lustrum has survived, and been adopted in some modern languages, in the derived sense of a period of five years, i.e. half a decennium.
, the famous 16th Century Genoese
admiral
, was rewarded for his services to his city by getting the title of "perpetual censor"—inspired by, though not precisely identical with, the Roman one.
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, supervising public morality
Public morality
Public morality refers to moral and ethical standards enforced in a society, by law or police work or social pressure, and applied to public life, to the content of the media, and to conduct in public places...
, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances.
The censors' regulation of public morality is the origin of the modern meaning of the words "censor" and "censorship."
Creation of the rank
The census was first instituted by Servius TulliusServius Tullius
Servius Tullius was the legendary sixth king of ancient Rome, and the second of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned 578-535 BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his servile origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Rome's first Etruscan king, who was assassinated in 579 BC...
, sixth king of Rome
King of Rome
The King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. According to legend, the first king of Rome was Romulus, who founded the city in 753 BC upon the Palatine Hill. Seven legendary kings are said to have ruled Rome until 509 BC, when the last king was overthrown. These kings ruled for...
. After the abolition of the monarchy and the founding of the Republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
, the consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
s had responsibility for the census until 443 BC. In 442 BC, no consuls were elected, but military tribune
Military tribune
A military tribune was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion...
s with consular power were appointed instead; this was a move by the plebeians to try to attain higher magistracies: only patricians could be elected consuls, while some military tribunes were plebeians. To avoid the possibility of plebeians obtaining control of the census, the patricians removed the right to take the census from the consuls and tribunes, and appointed for this duty two magistrates, called censores (censors), elected exclusively from the patricians in Rome.
The magistracy continued to be controlled by patricians until 351 BC, when Gaius Marcius Rutilus
Gaius Marcius Rutilus
Gaius Marcius Rutilus was the first plebeian dictator and censor of ancient Rome, and consul four times.He was first elected consul in 357 BC, then appointed as dictator the following year in order to deal with an invasion by the Etruscans...
was appointed the first plebeian censor. Twelve years afterwards in 339 BC
339 BC
Year 339 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mamercinus and Philo...
, one of the Publilian laws required that one censor had to be a plebeian. Despite this, no plebeian censor performed the solemn purification of the people (the "lustrum"; Livy Periochae 13) until 280 BC. In 131 BC, for the first time, both censors were plebeians.
There were two censors, because the two consuls had previously taken the census together. If one of the censors died during his term of office, another was chosen to replace him, just as with consuls. This happened only once, in 393 BC. However the Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
s captured Rome in that lustrum
Lustrum
A lustrum was a term for a five-year period in Ancient Rome.The lustration was originally a sacrifice for expiation and purification offered by one of the censors in the name of the Roman people at the close of the taking of the census...
(five-year period), and the Romans thereafter regarded such replacement as "an offense against religion". From then on, if one of the censors died, his colleague resigned, and two new censors were chosen to replace them.
Election
The censors were elected in the Centuriate Assembly, which met under the presidency of a consul. Barthold NiebuhrBarthold Georg Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German statesman and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. Classical Rome caught the admiration of German thinkers...
suggests that the censors were at first elected by the Curiate Assembly
Curiate Assembly
The Curiate Assembly was the principal assembly during the first two decades of the Roman Republic. During these first decades, the People of Rome were organized into thirty units called "Curia"...
, and that the Assembly's selections were confirmed by the Centuriate; but William Smith
William Smith (lexicographer)
Sir William Smith Kt. was a noted English lexicographer.-Early life:Born at Enfield in 1813 of Nonconformist parents, he was originally destined for a theological career, but instead was articled to a solicitor. In his spare time he taught himself classics, and when he entered University College...
believes that "there is no authority for this supposition, and the truth of it depends entirely upon the correctness of
The assembly for the election of the censors was held under different auspice
Auspice
An auspice is literally "one who looks at birds", a diviner who reads omens from the observed flight of birds...
s from those at the election of the consuls and praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
s, so the censors were not regarded as their colleagues, although they likewise possessed the maxima auspicia
Maxima auspicia
In ancient Roman religion and law, the auspicia maxima were the "greatest auspices," conferred on senior magistrates who held imperium: "auspicium and imperium were the twin pillars of the magistrate's power" . Only magistrates who had auspicia maxima were entitled to begin a war and, if...
. The assembly was held by the new consuls shortly after they began their term of office; and the censors, as soon as they were elected and the censorial power had been granted to them by a decree of the Centuriate Assembly (lex centuriata), were fully installed in their office.
As a general principle, the only ones eligible for the office of censor were those who had previously been consuls, but there were a few exceptions. At first, there was no law to prevent a person being censor twice, but the only person who was elected to the office twice was Gaius Marcius Rutilus
Gaius Marcius Rutilus
Gaius Marcius Rutilus was the first plebeian dictator and censor of ancient Rome, and consul four times.He was first elected consul in 357 BC, then appointed as dictator the following year in order to deal with an invasion by the Etruscans...
in 265 BC
265 BC
Year 265 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gurges and Vitulus...
. In that year, he originated a law stating that no one could be elected censor twice. In consequence of this, he received the cognomen
Cognomen
The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...
of Censorinus
Marcius Censorinus
Marcius Censorinus was a name used by a branch of the plebeian gens Marcia of ancient Rome. The cognomen Censorinus was acquired through Gaius Marcius Rutilus, the first plebeian censor, whose son used it...
.
Attributes
The censorship differed from all other Roman magistracies in the length of office. The censors were originally chosen for a whole lustrum (the period of five years), but as early as ten years after its institution (433 BC433 BC
Year 433 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Vibulanus, Fidenas and Flaccinator...
) their office was limited to eighteen months by a law of the dictator
Roman dictator
In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus. The censors were also unique with respect to rank and dignity. They had no imperium
Imperium
Imperium is a Latin word which, in a broad sense, translates roughly as 'power to command'. In ancient Rome, different kinds of power or authority were distinguished by different terms. Imperium, referred to the sovereignty of the state over the individual...
, and accordingly no lictor
Lictor
The lictor was a member of a special class of Roman civil servant, with special tasks of attending and guarding magistrates of the Roman Republic and Empire who held imperium, the right and power to command; essentially, a bodyguard...
s. Their rank was granted to them by the Centuriate Assembly, and not by the curia
Curia
A curia in early Roman times was a subdivision of the people, i.e. more or less a tribe, and with a metonymy it came to mean also the meeting place where the tribe discussed its affairs...
e, and in that respect they were inferior in power to the consuls and praetors.
Notwithstanding this, the censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the dictatorship; it was a "sacred magistracy" (sanctus magistratus), to which the deepest reverence was due. The high rank and dignity which the censorship obtained was due to the various important duties gradually entrusted to it, and especially to its possessing the regimen morum, or general control over the conduct and the morals of the citizens. In the exercise of this power, they were regulated solely by their own views of duty, and were not responsible to any other power in the state.
The censors possessed of course the "curule chair
Curule chair
In the Roman Republic, and later the Empire, the curule seat was the chair upon which senior magistrates or promagistrates owning imperium were entitled to sit, including dictators, masters of the horse, consuls, praetors, censors, and the curule aediles...
" (sella curulis), but there is some doubt with respect to their official dress. A well-known passage of Polybius describes the use of the imagines at funerals; we may conclude that a consul or praetor wore the purple-bordered toga praetexta, one who triumphed the embroidered toga picta, and the censor a purple toga peculiar to him; but other writers speak of their official dress as being the same as that of the other higher magistrates. The funeral of a censor was always conducted with great pomp and splendour, and hence a "censorial funeral" (funus censorium) was voted even to the emperors.
Abolition
The censorship continued in existence for 421 years, from 443 BC443 BC
Year 443 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Macerinus and Barbatus...
to 22 BC
22 BC
Year 22 BC was either a common year starting on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday or a leap year starting on Sunday or Saturday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...
; but during this period many lustra passed by without any censor being chosen at all. According to one statement, the office was abolished by Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Although the authority on which this statement rests is not of much weight, the fact itself is probable, since there was no census during the two lustra which elapsed from Sulla's dictatorship to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey)
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
's first consulship (82
82 BC
Year 82 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marius and Carbo...
–70 BC
70 BC
Year 70 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magnus and Dives...
), and any strict "imposition of morals" would have been found inconvenient to the aristocracy that supported Sulla.
If the censorship was done away with by Sulla, it was at any rate restored in the consulship of Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and politician who commanded the right wing of Sulla's army at the Battle of the Colline Gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus, provided political and financial support to Julius Caesar and entered into the political alliance known as the...
. Its power was limited by one of the laws of the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher
Publius Clodius Pulcher
Publius Clodius Pulcher was a Roman politician known for his popularist tactics...
(58 BC
58 BC
Year 58 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Piso and Gabinius...
), which prescribed certain regular forms of proceeding before the censors in expelling a person from the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
, and required that the censors be in agreement to exact this punishment. This law, however, was repealed in the third consulship of Pompey in 52 BC
52 BC
Year 52 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Scipio...
, on the urging of his colleague Caecilius Metellus Scipio
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica , in modern scholarship often as Metellus Scipio, was a Roman consul and military commander in the Late Republic. During the civil war between Julius Caesar and the senatorial faction led by Pompeius Magnus , he remained a staunch optimate...
, but the office of the censorship never recovered its former power and influence.
During the civil wars which followed soon afterwards, no censors were elected; it was only after a long interval that they were again appointed, namely in 22 BC
22 BC
Year 22 BC was either a common year starting on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday or a leap year starting on Sunday or Saturday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...
, when Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
caused Lucius Munatius Plancus
Lucius Munatius Plancus
Lucius Munatius Plancus was a Roman senator, consul in 42 BC, and censor in 22 BC with Aemilius Lepidus Paullus...
and Aemilius Lepidus Paullus
Aemilius Lepidus Paullus
Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus or Paullus Aemilius Lepidus was a member of the Roman Senate. Paullus was a member of the gens Aemilia....
to fill the office. This was the last time that such magistrates were appointed; the emperors in future discharged the duties of their office under the name of Praefectura Morum ("prefect of the morals").
Some of the emperors sometimes took the name of censor when they held a census of the Roman people; this was the case with Claudius
Claudius
Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...
, who appointed the elder Vitellius
Vitellius
Vitellius , was Roman Emperor for eight months, from 16 April to 22 December 69. Vitellius was acclaimed Emperor following the quick succession of the previous emperors Galba and Otho, in a year of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors...
as his colleague, and with Vespasian
Vespasian
Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
, who likewise had a colleague in his son Titus
Titus
Titus , was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father....
. Domitian
Domitian
Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...
assumed the title of "perpetual censor" (censor perpetuus), but this example was not imitated by succeeding emperors. In the reign of Decius
Decius
Trajan Decius , was Roman Emperor from 249 to 251. In the last year of his reign, he co-ruled with his son Herennius Etruscus until they were both killed in the Battle of Abrittus.-Early life and rise to power:...
we find the elder Valerian
Valerian (emperor)
Valerian , also known as Valerian the Elder, was Roman Emperor from 253 to 260. He was taken captive by Persian king Shapur I after the Battle of Edessa, becoming the only Roman Emperor who was captured as a prisoner of war, resulting in wide-ranging instability across the Empire.-Origins and rise...
nominated to the censorship, but Valerian was never actually elected censor.
Duties
The duties of the censors may be divided into three classes, all of which were closely connected with one another:- The Census, or register of the citizens and of their property, in which were included the reading of the SenateRoman SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
's lists (lectio senatus) and the recognition of who qualified for equestrian rank (recognitio equitum); - The Regimen Morum, or keeping of the public morals; and
- The administration of the finances of the state, under which were classed the superintendence of the public buildings and the erection of all new public works.
The original business of the censorship was at first of a much more limited kind, and was restricted almost entirely to taking the census, but the possession of this power gradually brought with it fresh power and new duties, as is shown below. A general view of these duties is briefly expressed in the following passage of Cicero: "Censores populi aevitates, soboles, familias pecuniasque censento: urbis templa, vias, aquas, aerarium, vectigalia tuento: populique partes in tribus distribunto: exin pecunias, aevitates, ordines patiunto: equitum, peditumque prolem describunto: caelibes esse prohibento: mores populi regunto: probrum in senatu ne relinquunto." This can be translated roughly as: "The Censors are to determine the generations, origins, families, and properties of the people; they are to (watch over/protect) the city's temples, roads, waters, treasury, and taxes; they are to divide the people into three parts; next, they are to (allow/approve) the properties, generations, and ranks [of the people]; they are to describe the offspring of knights and footsoldiers; they are to forbid being unmarried; they are to guide the behavior of the people; they are not to overlook abuse in the Senate."
Census
The Census, the first and principal duty of the censors, was always held in the Campus MartiusCampus Martius
The Campus Martius , was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome...
, and from the year 435 BC
435 BC
Year 435 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the First year of the Consulship of Iullus and Tricostus...
onwards, in a special building called Villa Publica
Villa Publica
The Villa Publica was a public building in ancient Rome, which served as the censors’ base of operation. It was erected on the Campus Martius in 435 BC. According to Livy, the first census was compiled there the year it was built. In 194 BC, the building, or buildings, was restored and enlarged...
, which was erected for that purpose by the second pair of censors, Gaius Furius Pacilus and Marcus Geganius Macerinus.
An account of the formalities with which the census was opened is given in a fragment of the Tabulae Censoriae, preserved by Varro. After the auspices had been taken, the citizens were summoned by a public crier to appear before the censors. Each tribe was called up separately, and the names in each tribe were probably taken according to the lists previously made out by the tribunes of the tribes. Every paterfamilias had to appear in person before the censors, who were seated in their curule chair
Curule chair
In the Roman Republic, and later the Empire, the curule seat was the chair upon which senior magistrates or promagistrates owning imperium were entitled to sit, including dictators, masters of the horse, consuls, praetors, censors, and the curule aediles...
s, and those names were taken first which were considered to be of good omen, such as Valerius
Valerius
Valerius is the nomen of gens Valeria, one of the oldest patrician families of Rome. The name was in use throughout Roman history...
, Salvius
Salvius
Salvius was a flute player who was proclaimed king by the rebelling slaves of ancient Sicily during the Second Servile War. He assumed the name Tryphon, from Diodotus Tryphon, a Seleucid ruler. For some time, he waged war against the Romans....
, Statorius, etc.
The census was conducted according to the judgment of the censor (ad arbitrium censoris), 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, "declared from the heart".
First he had to give his full name (praenomen
Praenomen
The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus , the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy...
, nomen
Roman naming conventions
By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a name in ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts : praenomen , nomen and cognomen...
, and cognomen
Cognomen
The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...
) and that of his father, or if he were a Libertus ("freedman") that of his patron
Patronage in ancient Rome
Patronage was the distinctive relationship in ancient Roman society between the patronus and his client . The relationship was hierarchical, but obligations were mutual. The patronus was the protector, sponsor, and benefactor of the client...
, and he was likewise obliged to state his age. He was then asked, "You, declaring from your heart, do you have a wife?" 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 and orphans were represented by their guardians; their names were entered in separate lists, and they were not included in the sum total of heads.
After a citizen had stated his name, age, family, etc., he then had to give an account of all his property, so far as it was subject to the census. Only such things were liable to the census (censui censendo) as were property according to the Quiritarian law. At first, each citizen appears to have merely given the value of his whole property in general without entering into details; but it soon became the practice to give a minute specification of each article, as well as the general value of the whole.
Land formed the most important article of the census, but public land, the possession of which only belonged to a citizen, was excluded as not being Quiritarian property. If we may judge from the practice of the imperial period, it was the custom to give a most minute specification of all such land as a citizen held according to the Quiritarian law. He had to state the name and location of the land, and to specify what portion of it was arable, what meadow, what vineyard, and what olive-ground: and of the land thus described, he had to give his assessment of its value.
Slave
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
s and cattle formed the next most important item. The censors also possessed the right of calling for a return of such objects as had not usually been given in, such as clothing, jewels, and carriages. It has been doubted by some modern writers whether the censors possessed the power of setting a higher valuation on the property than the citizens themselves gave, but when we recollect the discretionary nature of the censors' powers, and the necessity almost that existed, in order to prevent fraud, that the right of making a surcharge should be vested in somebody's hands, we can hardly doubt that the censors had this power. It is moreover expressly stated that on one occasion they made an extravagant surcharge on articles of luxury; and even if they did not enter in their books the property of a person at a higher value than he returned it, they accomplished the same end by compelling him to pay a tax upon the property at a higher rate than others. The tax was usually one per thousand upon the property entered in the books of the censors, but on one occasion the censors compelled a person to pay eight per thousand as a punishment.
A person who voluntarily absented himself from the census was considered incensus and subject to the severest punishment. Servius Tullius
Servius Tullius
Servius Tullius was the legendary sixth king of ancient Rome, and the second of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned 578-535 BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his servile origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Rome's first Etruscan king, who was assassinated in 579 BC...
is said to have threatened such individuals with imprisonment and death, and in the Republican
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
period he might be sold by the state as a slave In the later times of the republic, a person who was absent from the census might be represented by another, and be thus registered by the censors. Whether the soldiers who were absent on service had to appoint a representative is uncertain. In ancient times, the sudden outbreaks of war prevented the census from being taken, because a large number of the citizens would necessarily be absent. It is supposed from a passage in Livy that in later times the censors sent commissioners into the provinces with full powers to take the census of the Roman soldiers there, but this seems to have been a special case. It is, on the contrary, probable from the way in which Cicero pleads the absence of Archias from Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
with the army under Lucullus
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...
, as a sufficient reason for his not having been enrolled in the census, 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 classes 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 Centuriata). 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, insofar as they were connected with the finances of the state, were deposited in the aerarium, which was the temple of Saturn; but the regular depositary for all the archives of the censors was in earlier times the Atrium Libertatis, near the Villa publica, and in later times the temple of the Nymphs.
Besides the division of the citizens into tribes, centuries, and classes, the censors had also to make out the lists of the senators
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
for the ensuing five years, 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. In the same manner they held a review of the Equestrians who received a horse from public funds (equites equo publico), and added and removed names as they judged proper. They also confirmed the princeps senatus
Princeps senatus
The princeps senatus was the first member by precedence of the Roman Senate. Although officially out of the cursus honorum and owning no imperium, this office brought enormous prestige to the senator holding it.-Overview:...
, or appointed a new one. The princeps himself had to be a former censor.
After the lists had been completed, the number of citizens was counted up, and the sum total announced. 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 ("heads"), sometimes with the addition of the word civium ("of the citizens"), and sometimes not. Hence, to be registered in the census was the same thing as "having a head" (caput habere).
Census beyond Rome
A census was sometimes taken in the provinces, even under the republic. The Emperor sent into the provinces special officers called Censitores to take the census; but the duty was sometimes discharged by the Imperial legati. The Censitores were assisted by subordinate officers, called Censuales, who made out the lists, &c. In Rome, the census was still taken under the empire, but the old ceremonies connected with it were no longer performed, and the ceremony of the lustration was not performed after the time of Vespasian. The jurists Paulus and UlpianUlpian
Gnaeus Domitius Annius Ulpianus , anglicized as Ulpian, was a Roman jurist of Tyrian ancestry.-Biography:The exact time and place of his birth are unknown, but the period of his literary activity was between AD 211 and 222...
each wrote works on the census in the imperial period; and several extracts from these works are given in a chapter in the Digest (50 15).
Other uses of census
The word census, besides the conventional meaning of "valuation" of a person's estate, has other meaning in Rome; it could refer to:- the amount of a person's property (hence we read of census senatorius, the estate of a senator; census equestris, the estate of an eques).
- the lists of the censors.
- the tax which depended upon the valuation in the census. The Lexicons will supply examples of these meanings.
Regimen morum
Keeping the public morals (regimen morum, or in the empireRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
cura morum or praefectura morum) was the second most important branch of the censors' duties, and the one which caused their office to be one of the most revered and the most dreaded in the Roman state; hence they were also known as Castigatores ("chastisers"). It naturally grew out of the right which they possessed of excluding persons from the lists of citizens; for, as has been well remarked, "they would, in the first place, be the sole judges of many questions of fact, such as whether a citizen had the qualifications required by law or custom for the rank which he claimed, or whether he had ever incurred any judicial sentence, which rendered him infamous: but from thence the transition was easy, according to Roman notions, to the decisions of questions of right; such as whether a citizen was really worthy of retaining his rank, whether he had not committed some act as justly degrading as those which incurred the sentence of the law."
In this manner, the censors gradually assumed at least nominal complete superintendence over the whole public and private life of every citizen. They were constituted as the conservators of public morality; they were not simply to prevent crime or particular acts of immorality, but rather to maintain the traditional Roman character, ethics, and habits (mos majorum)—regimen morum also encompassed this protection of traditional ways, which was called in the times of the empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
cura ("supervision") or praefectura ("command"). The punishment inflicted by the censors in the exercise of this branch of their duties was called nota ("mark, letter") or notatio, or animadversio censoria ("censorial reproach"). In inflicting it, they were guided only by their conscientious convictions of duty; they had to take an oath that they would act biased by neither 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 censoria.
This part of the censors' office invested them with a peculiar kind of jurisdiction, which in many respects resembled the exercise of public opinion in modern times; for there are innumerable actions which, though acknowledged by every one to be prejudicial and immoral, still do not come within the reach of the positive laws of a country; as often said, "immorality does not equal illegality". Even in cases of real crimes, the positive laws frequently punish only the particular offence, while in public opinion the offender, even after he has undergone punishment, is still incapacitated for certain honours and distinctions which are granted only to persons of unblemished character.
Hence the Roman censors might brand a man with their "censorial mark" (nota censoria) in case he had been convicted of a crime in an ordinary court of justice, and had already suffered punishment for it. The consequence of such a nota was only ignominia and not infamia
Infamia
In ancient Roman culture, infamia was a loss of legal or social standing. As a technical term of Roman law, infamia was an official exclusion from the legal protections enjoyed by a Roman citizen, as imposed by a censor or praetor...
. 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
Lex
-Written law :* Legislation* Statute* Statutory law* Act of Parliament* Act of Congress-Fictional characters:*Lex Luthor, a fictional supervillain in DC Comics*Lex in the TV series The Tribe .* Lex in game Fire Emblem...
(roughly "law"). A censorial mark was moreover not valid unless both censors agreed. The ignominia was thus only a transitory reduction of status, which does not even appear 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
Judex
Judex is the title of a 1916 silent French movie serial concerning the adventures of Judex who is a pulp hero, similar to The Shadow, created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède.-Concept:...
by the praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
, or for serving in the Roman armies
Roman army
The Roman army is the generic term for the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the kingdom of Rome , the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine empire...
. Mamercus Aemilius was thus, notwithstanding the reproach of the censors (animadversio censoria), made dictator
Roman dictator
In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate . The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi , i.e...
.
A person might be branded with a censorial mark in a variety of cases, which it would be impossible to specify, as in a great many instances it depended upon the discretion of the censors and the view they took of a case; and sometimes even one set of censors would overlook an offence which was severely chastised by their successors. But the offences which are recorded to have been punished by the censors are of a threefold nature.
- Such as occurred in the private life of individuals, e.g.
- Living in celibacy at a time when a person ought to be married to provide the state with citizens. The obligation of marrying was frequently impressed upon the citizens by the censors, and the refusal to fulfil it was punished with a fine (aes uxorium).
- The dissolution of matrimony or betrothment in an improper way, or for insufficient reasons.
- Improper conduct towards one's wife or children, as well as harshness or too great indulgence towards children, and disobedience of the latter towards their parents.
- Inordinate and luxurious mode of living, or an extravagant expenditure of money. A great many instances of this kind are recorded. At a later time the leges sumtuariae were made to check the growing love of luxuries.
- Neglect and carelessness in cultivating one's fields.
- Cruelty towards slaves or clients.
- The carrying on of a disreputable trade or occupation, such as acting in theatres.
- Legacy-hunting, defrauding orphans, &c.
- Living in celibacy at a time when a person ought to be married to provide the state with citizens. The obligation of marrying was frequently impressed upon the citizens by the censors, and the refusal to fulfil it was punished with a fine (aes uxorium).
- Offences committed in public life, either in the capacity of a public officer or against magistrates,
- If a magistrate acted in a manner not befitting his dignity as an officer, if he was accessible to bribes, or forged auspices.
- Improper conduct towards a magistrate, or the attempt to limit his power or to abrogate a law which the censors thought necessary.
- Perjury.
- Neglect, disobedience, and cowardice of soldiers in the army.
- The keeping of the equus publicus (a horse kept by patrician equestrian militia at public expense) in bad condition.
- If a magistrate acted in a manner not befitting his dignity as an officer, if he was accessible to bribes, or forged auspices.
- A variety of actions or pursuits which were thought to be injurious to public morality, might be forbidden by an edict, and those who acted contrary to such edicts were branded with the nota and degraded. For an enumeration of the offences that might be punished by the censors with ignominia, see Niebuhr.
A person who had been branded with a nota censoria, might, if he considered himself wronged, endeavour to prove his innocence to the censors, and if he did not succeed, he might try to gain the protection of one of the censors, that he might intercede on his behalf.
Punishments
The punishments inflicted by the censors generally differed according to the station which a man occupied, though sometimes a person of the highest rank might suffer all the punishments at once, by being degraded to the lowest class of citizens. But they are generally divided into four classes:- Motio ("removal") or ejectio e senatu ("ejection from the Senate"), or the exclusion of a man from the ranks 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 latter course seems to have been seldom adopted; the ordinary mode of inflicting the punishment was simply this: 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, quietly omitted the names of those who were no longer to be senators. Hence the expression praeteriti senatores ("senators passed over") is equivalent to e senatu ejecti (those removed from the senate).In some cases, however, the censors did not acquiesce to this simple mode of proceeding, but addressed the senator whom they had noted, and publicly reprimanded him for his conduct. As, however, in ordinary cases an ex-senator was not disqualified by his ignominia for holding any of the magistracies which opened the way to the senate, he might at the next census again become a senator.
- The ademptio equi, or the taking away the publicly-funded horse from an equestrian. This punishment might likewise be simple, or combined with the exclusion from the tribes and the degradation to the rank of an aerarian.
- The motio e tribu, or the exclusion of a person from his tribe. This punishment and the degradation to the rank of an aerarian were originally the same; but when in the course of time a distinction was made between the rural or rustic tribes and the urban tribes, the motio e tribu transferred a person from the rustic tribes to the less respectable city tribes, and if the further degradation to the rank of an aerarian was combined with the motio e tribu, it was always expressly stated.
- 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. This degradation, properly speaking, included all the other punishments, for an equestrian could not be made an aerarius unless he was previously deprived of his horse, nor could a member of a rustic tribe be made an aerarius unless he was previously excluded from it.
It was this authority of the Roman censors which eventually developed into the modern meaning of "Censor
Censor
Censor may refer to:*Censorship, the control of speech and other forms of human expression*Roman censor, a magistrate for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, etc*Cato Censor , Roman statesman...
" and "censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
"—i.e., officials who review published material and forbid the publication of material judged to be contrary to "public morality" as the term is interpreted in a given political and social environment.
Administration of the finances of the state
The administration of the state's finances 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. 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 saltSalt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
works, the mines, the customs, etc.
The censors typically auctioned off to the highest bidder for the space of a lustrum the collection of the tithes and taxes (tax farming
Tax farming
Farming is a technique of financial management, namely the process of commuting , by its assignment by legal contract to a third party, a future uncertain revenue stream into fixed and certain periodic rents, in consideration for which commutation a discount in value received is suffered...
). This auctioning was called venditio or locatio, and seems to have taken place in the month of March, in a public place in Rome The terms on which they were let, together with the rights and duties of the purchasers, were all specified in the leges censoriae, which the censors published in every case before the bidding commenced. For further particulars see Publicani.
The censors also possessed the right, though probably not without the assent of the Senate, of imposing new vectigalia, and even of selling the land belonging to the state. It would thus appear that it was the duty of the censors to bring forward a budget for a five-year period, and to take care that the income of the state was sufficient for its expenditure during that time. In part, their duties resembled those of a modern minister of finance. The censors, however, did not receive the revenues of the state. All the public money was paid into the aerarium
Aerarium
Aerarium was the name given in Ancient Rome to the public treasury, and in a secondary sense to the public finances....
, which was entirely under the jurisdiction of the senate; and all disbursements were made by order of this body, which employed the quaestor
Quaestor
A Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....
s as its officers.
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 publica), 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, that no public places were encroached upon by the occupation of private persons, and that the aqueduct, roads, drains, etc. 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
Public auction
A public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government, or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a government agency with similar authority....
to the lowest bidder, just as the vectigalia were let out to the highest bidder. These expenses were called ultrotributa, and hence we frequently find vectigalia and ultrotributa contrasted with one another. The persons who undertook the contract were called conductores, mancipes, redemptores, susceptores, etc.; 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, even for instance the feeding of the sacred geese in the Capitol; these various tasks were also let out on contract.
Besides keeping existing public buildings and facilities in a proper state of repair, the censors were also in charge of constructing new ones, either for ornament or utility, both in Rome and in other parts of Italy, such as temples, basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
e, theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
s, porticoes, fora
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum...
, walls of towns, aqueducts, harbours, bridges, cloacae, roads, etc. These works were either performed by them jointly, or they divided between them the money, which had been granted to them by the senate. They were let out to contractors, like the other works mentioned above, and when they were completed, the censors had to see that the work was performed in accordance with the contract: this was called opus probare or in acceptum referre.
The aedile
Aedile
Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order. There were two pairs of aediles. Two aediles were from the ranks of plebeians and the other...
s had likewise a superintendence over the public buildings, and 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 were more financial in subject matter.
Lustrum
After the censors had performed their various duties and taken the five-yearly census, the lustrumLustrum
A lustrum was a term for a five-year period in Ancient Rome.The lustration was originally a sacrifice for expiation and purification offered by one of the censors in the name of the Roman people at the close of the taking of the census...
, a 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; but both censors were of course obliged to be present at the ceremony.
Long after the Roman census was no longer taken, the Latin word lustrum has survived, and been adopted in some modern languages, in the derived sense of a period of five years, i.e. half a decennium.
Census statistics
| Census | Population | Economic crises | Wars | Epidemics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 508 BC | 130,000 | |||
| 505–504 BC | ||||
| 503 BC | 120,000 | |||
| 499 or 496 BC | ||||
| 498 BC | 150,700 | |||
| 493 BC | 110,000 | |||
| 492–491 BC | ||||
| 486 BC | ||||
| 474 BC | 103,000 | 474 BC | 474 BC | |
| 465 BC | 104,714 | |||
| 459 BC | 117,319 | |||
| 456 BC | ||||
| 454 BC | 454 BC | |||
| 440–439 BC | ||||
| 433 BC | 433 BC | |||
| 428 BC | 428 BC | |||
| 412 BC | 412 BC | |||
| 400 BC | ||||
| 396 BC | ||||
| 392 BC | 152,573 | 392 BC | 392 BC | |
| 390 BC | 390 BC | |||
| 386 BC | ||||
| 383 BC | 383 BC | |||
| 343–341 BC | ||||
| 340 BC | 165,000 | 340–338 BC | ||
| 326–304 BC | ||||
| 323 BC | 150,000 | |||
| 299 BC | ||||
| 298–290 BC | ||||
| 294 BC | 262,321 | |||
| 293/292 BC | ||||
| 289 BC | 272,200 | |||
| 281 BC | ||||
| 280 BC | 287,222 | 280–275 BC | ||
| 276 BC | 271,224 | 276 BC? | ||
| 265 BC | 292,234 | |||
| 264–241 BC | ||||
| 252 BC | 297,797 | |||
| 250 BCE | 250 BC | |||
| 247 BC | 241,712 | |||
| 241 BC | 260,000 | |||
| 234 BC | 270,713 | |||
| 216 BC | 216 BC | |||
| 211–210 BC | 211–210 BC | |||
| 209 BC | 137,108 | |||
| 204 BC | 214,000 | 204 BC | ||
| 203 BC | ||||
| 201 BC | ||||
| 200 BC | 200–195 BC | |||
| 194 BC | 143,704 | |||
| 192–188 BC | ||||
| 189 BC | 258,318 | |||
| 187 BC | ||||
| 182–180 BC | ||||
| 179 BC | 258,318 | |||
| 176–175 BC | ||||
| 174 BC | 269,015 | |||
| 171–167 BC | ||||
| 169 BC | 312,805 | |||
| 165 BC | ||||
| 164 BC | 337,022 | |||
| 159 BC | 328,316 | |||
| 154 BC | 324,000 | |||
| 153 BC | ||||
| 147 BC | 322,000 | |||
| 142 BC | 322,442 | 142 BC | ||
| 138 BC | ||||
| 136 BC | 317,933 | |||
| 131 BC | 318,823 | |||
| 125 BC | 394,736 | |||
| 123 BC | ||||
| 115 BC | 394,336 | |||
| 104 BC | ||||
| 87 BC | ||||
| 86 BC | 463,000 | |||
| 75 BC | ||||
| 70 BC | 910,000 | |||
| 67 BC | ||||
| 65 BC | ||||
| 54 BC | ||||
| 49–46 BC | ||||
| 43 BC | ||||
| 28 BC | 4,063,000 | |||
| 23–22 | 23–22 | |||
| 8 BC | 4,233,000 | |||
| 5–6 | ||||
| 10 | ||||
| 14 AD | 4,937,000 | |||
Sources
- Brunt, P. A. Italian Manpower 225 BC – AD 14. Oxford, 1971;
- Wiseman, T. P. The Census in the first century B.C. Journal of Roman Studies, 1969;
- Virlouvet, C. Famines et émeutes à Rome, des origines de la République à la mort de Néron. Roma, 1985;
- Suder, W., Góralczyk, E. Sezonowość epidemii w Republice Rzymskiej. Vitae historicae, Księga jubileuszowa dedykowana profesorowi Lechowi A. Tyszkiewiczowi w siedemdziesiątą rocznicę urodzin. Wrocław, 2001.
Andrea Doria as "perpetual censor"
Andrea DoriaAndrea Doria
Andrea Doria was an Italian condottiere and admiral from Genoa.-Early life:Doria was born at Oneglia from the ancient Genoese family, the Doria di Oneglia branch of the old Doria, de Oria or de Auria family. His parents were related: Ceva Doria, co-lord of Oneglia, and Caracosa Doria, of the...
, the famous 16th Century Genoese
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
, was rewarded for his services to his city by getting the title of "perpetual censor"—inspired by, though not precisely identical with, the Roman one.
See also
- Birth registration in Ancient RomeBirth registration in Ancient RomeTwo separate processes of birth registrations existed in Roman Egypt: one process for Roman citizens that was conducted in Latin, and another process for Greco-Egyptians that was conducted in Greek. These two processes were in legal terms, totally unrelated....
- Constitution of the Roman RepublicConstitution of the Roman RepublicThe Constitution of the Roman Republic was a set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The constitution was largely unwritten, uncodified, and constantly evolving...
- Cursus honorumCursus honorumThe cursus honorum was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in both the Roman Republic and the early Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The cursus honorum comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts. Each office had a minimum...
- Lex Caecilia De CensoriaLex Caecilia De CensoriaLex Caecilia De Censoria was passed by Metellus Scipio, Roman Consul of 52 BC. It repealed a law passed by the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher in 58 BC, which had prescribed certain rules for the Censors in exercising their functions as inspectors of public morals...
- List of topics related to ancient Rome
- List of censors
- Political institutions of RomePolitical institutions of RomeA list regarding the political institutions of ancient Rome follows.-Constitutions:* Roman Constitution* Constitution of the Roman Kingdom* Constitution of the Roman Republic* Constitution of the Roman Empire* Constitution of the Late Roman Empire...
- Roman RepublicRoman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...