the triumviri, there were 67 prætors in one year, Dio. xlviii. 43. 53. Augustus reduced the number to twelve, Dio says ten, xliii. 32.; but afterwards made them sixteen, Pompon. de Orig. Jur. ii. 28. According to Tacitus, there were no more than twelve at his death, Annal. i. 14. Under Tiberius, there were sometimes fifteen and sometimes sixteen, Dio. lviii. 20. Claudius added two prætors for the cognisance of trusts (qui de fidei commissis jus dicerent). The number then was eighteen; but afterwards it varied.

Upon the decline of the empire, the principal functions of the prætors were conferred on the præfectus prætorio, and other magistrates instituted by the emperors. The prætors of course sunk in their importance; under Valentinian their number was reduced to three ; and this magistracy having become an empty name (inane nomen), Boeth. de Consol. Philos. iii. 4., was at last entirely suppressed, as it is thought, under Justinian.

III. CENSORS.*

Two magistrates were first created [Papirius and Sempronius], A. U. 312, for taking an account of the number of the people, and the value of their fortunes (censui agendo); whence they were called CENSORES, Liv. et Fest. (CENSOR, ad cujus censionem, id est, arbitrium, censeretur populus, Varr. L. L. iv. 14.) As the consuls, being engaged in wars abroad or commotions at home, had not leisure for that business (non consulibus operæ erat, sc. pretium, i. e. iis non vacabat id negotium agere); the census had been intermitted for seventeen years, Liv. iii. 22. iv. 8.

The censors at first continued in office for five years, Ibid. But afterwards, lest they should abuse their authority, a law was passed by Mamercus Æmilius the dictator, ordaining, that they should be elected every five years; but that their power should continue only a year and a half (Ex quinquennali annua ac semestris censura facta est), Liv. iv. 24. ix. 33.

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

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

The power of the censors at first was small; but afterwards it became very great. All the orders of the state were subject to them

"The most famous censorships are, that of Appius, Cic. Cato M. § 6. Hor. i、 Sat. vi. 20., and that of Cato, Liv. xxxix. 40."― T.

116

OFFICE AND POWERS OF THE CENSORS.

(censoribus subjecti, Liv. iv. 24.). Hence the censorship is called by Plutarch the summit of all preferments (omnium honorum apex vel fastigium), in Cat. Maj., and by Cicero magistra pudoris et modestia, in Pis. 4. The title of Censor was esteemed more honourable than that of Consul, as appears from ancient coins and statues; and it was reckoned the chief ornament of nobility to be sprung from a censorian family, Valer. Max. viii. 13. Tacit. Ann. iii. 28. Hist. iii. 9.

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

The censors performed the census in the Campus Martius. Seated in their curule chairs, and attended by their clerks and other officers, they ordered the citizens, divided into their classes and centuries, and also into their tribes, Liv. xxix. 37., to be called (citari) before them by a herald, and to give an account of their fortunes, families, &c. according to the institution of Servius Tullius. (See p. 76.) the same time they reviewed the senate and equestrian order, supplied the vacant places in both *, and inflicted various marks of disgrace (notas inurebant) on those who deserved it. A senator they excluded from the senate-house (senatu movebant vel ejiciebant) (see p. 7.), an eques they deprived of his public horse (equum adimebant) (see p. 24.), and any other citizen they removed from a more honourable to a less honourable tribe (tribu movebant); or deprived him of all the privileges of a Roman citizen, except liberty, (ærarium faciebant, Liv. Qui per hoc non esset in albo centuriæ suæ, sed ad hoc esset civis tantum, ut pro capite suo tributi nomine æra penderet, Ascon. in Cic.) or, as it is otherwise expressed, in tabulas Cæritum, vel inter Caritas referebant, i. e. jure suffragii privabant, Gell. xvi. 13. Strab. v. p. 220. Hence Carite cerâ digni, worthless persons, Horat. Ep. i. 6. 63. But this last phrase does not often occur. Cicero and Livy almost always use Erarium facere; in vel inter ærarios referre.+ This mark of disgrace was also inflicted on a senator or an eques, and was then always added to the mark of disgrace peculiar to their order; thus, Censores Mamercum, qui fuerat dictator, tribu moverunt, octuplicatoque censu, (i. e. having made the valuation of his estate eight times more than it ought, that thus he might be obliged to pay eight times more tribute,) ærarium fecerunt, Liv. iv. 24. Omnes quos senatu moverunt, quibusque equos ademerunt, ærarios fecerunt, et tribu moverunt, xlii. 10. The censors themselves did not sometimes agree about their powers in this respect; Claudius negabat, Suffragii lationem injussu populi censorem cuiquam homini adimere posse. Neque enim si tribu movere posset, quod sit nihil aliud quàm mutare jubere tribum, ideo omnibus v. et xxx. tribubus emovere posse: id est, civitatem libertatemque eripere, non ubi censeatur finire, sed censu excludere. Hæc inter ipsos disceptata, &c. Liv. xlv. 15.

The censors could inflict these marks of disgrace upon what evidence, and for what cause they judged proper: but, when they expelled from the senate, they commonly annexed a reason to their

"Compare Cic. de Legg. iii. 12.”.

T.

+ The name ærarius is explained, by Niebuhr, to denote a person who was not a member of a tribe, and, therefore, not liable to military service; upon whom, consequently, a higher rate of tribute was imposed for the pensions of soldiers (as militare), Vol. i. p. 412.

117

ENROLLING OF CITIZENS IN THE COLONIES, ETC. censure, Liv. xxxix. 42., which was called SUBSCRIPTIO CENSORIA, Cic. pro Cluent. 43, 44. Sometimes an appeal was made from their sentence to the people, Plutarch. in T. Q. Flamin.

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

The citizens in the colonies and free towns were there enrolled by their own censors, according to the form prescribed by the Roman censors (ex formulá ab Romanis censoribus data), and an account of them was transmitted to Rome, Liv. xxix. 15. So that the senate might see at one view the wealth and condition of the whole empire, ibid. 37. [Per provincias dimiserunt senatores, ut civium Romanorum in exercitibus, quantus ubique esset, referretur numerus.]

When the censors took an estimate of the fortunes of the citizens, they were said, censum agere vel habere; CENSERE populi ævitates, soboles, familias, pecuniasque, Cic. Legg. iii. 3. Referre in censum, Liv. xxxix. 44. Flor. i. 6., or censui ascribere, Tacit. Annal. xiii. 51. The citizens, when they gave in to the censors an estimate of their fortunes, &c. were said, CENSERI modum agri, mancipia, pecunias, &c. sc. secundum vel quod ad, Cic. Flacc. 32. s. 80. Profiteri; in censum deferre vel dedicare, Id. Arch. 4. Senec. Ep. 95. annos deferre vel censeri: thus, CL. annos (i. e. 150 years old) census est Claudii Cæsaris censura T. Fullonius Bononiensis; idque collatis censibus quos antè detulerat, verum apparuit, Plin. vii. 49. s. 50. Sometimes also censere; thus, Prædia censere, to give in an estimate of one's farms, Cic. Flacc. 32. Liv. xlv. 15. Prædia censui censendo, sc. apta; i. e. quorum census censeri, pretium æstimari ordinis et tributi causâ potest : farms, of which one is the just proprietor, ibid. Hence, censeri, to be valued or esteemed, to be held in estimation; Cic. Arch. 6. Val. Max. v. 3. ext. 3. Ovid. Am. ii. 15. 2. Senec. Ep. 76. Plin. Pan. 15. De quo censeris, amicus, from whom or on whose account you are valued, Ovid. Pont. ii. 5. 73. Privatus illis CENSUS erat brevis, their private fortune was small, Horat. Od. ii. 15. 13. exiguus, Ep. i. 1. 43., tenuis, Id. 7. 76. Equestris, v. -ter, the fortune of an Eques; CCCC. millia nummûm, 400,000 sesterces, Plin. Ep. i. 19. Senatorius, of a senator, Suet. Vesp. 17. Homo sine censu, Cic. Flacc. 52. Ex censu tributa conferre, Id. Verr. ii. 63. Cultus major censu, Horat. Sat. ii. 3. 323. Dat census honores, Ovid. Amor. iii. 8. 56. Census partus per vulnera, a fortune procured in war, ibid. 9. Demittere censum in viscera, i, e. bona obligurire, to eat up, Id. Met. viii. 846. Romani census populi, the treasury, Lucan. iii. 157. Breves extendere census, to make a small fortune go far, Martial. xii. 6.

The censors divided the citizens into classes and centuries, according to their fortunes. They added new tribes to the old, when it was necessary, Liv. x. 9. Epit. 19. They let the public lands and taxes (see p. 61.), and the regulations which they prescribed to the farmers-general (mancipibus v. publicanis) were called Leges vel Tabula Censoriæ, Cic. Ver. iii. 6. in Rull. i. 2. Polyb. vi. 15.

The censors agreed with undertakers about building and repairing the public works, such as temples, porticoes, &c. (opera publica ædi

118

OFFENCES COGNISABLE BY THE CENSORS.

ficanda et reficienda REDEMPTORIBUS locabant); which they examined when finished (probaverunt, i. e. rectè et ex ordine facta esse pronunciaverunt); and caused to be kept in good repair (sarta tecta exigebant, sc. et), Liv. iv. 22. xl. 51. xlii. 3. xlv. 15.* The expenses

allowed by the public for executing these works were called ULTROTRIBUTA, Liv. xxxix. 44. xliii. 16. Senec. Benef. iv. 1. Hence Ultrotributa locare, to let them, or to promise a certain sum for executing them; conducere, to undertake them, ibid.

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

They took care that private persons should not occupy what belonged to the public, Liv. iv. 8. And if any one refused to obey their sentence, they could fine him, and distrain his effects till he made payment, Liv. xliii. 16.

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

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

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

"So far were the Romans from regarding taxation as depending on the will of the people, and the determining concerning it as the great business of freedom, that perhaps there is not a single instance, except the duty of five per cent. on manumissions, of the legislature's interfering about it. Even the senate left the regulation of the property tax entirely to the discretion of the censors. Camillus and Albinus laid a heavy burthen on bachelors, and made orphans liable to the ordinary taxes: Cato and Flaccus subjected women's clothes and ornaments, and chariots of more than a certain price, to taxation: they rated the taxable value of high-priced young slaves at ten times the purchase money, and put a higher duty on all these objects, as a penalty for possessing them."— Nieb. ii. p. 402.

IGNOMINIA -JUDICIUM TURPE.

119

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

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

It was not fixed and unalterable, as the decision of a court of law (non pro re judicatâ habebatur), but might be either taken off by the next censors, or rendered ineffectual by the verdict of a jury, or by the suffrages of the Roman people. Thus we find C. Gæta, who had been extruded the senate by the censors, A. U. 639, the very next lustrum himself made censor, Cic. pro Cluent. 42. See p. 7. Sometimes the senate added force to the feeble sentence of the censors (inerti censoriæ nota) by their decree; which imposed an additional punishment, Liv. xxiv. 18. *

The office of censor was once exercised by a dictator, Liv. xxiii. 22, 23. After Sylla, the election of censors was intermitted for about seventeen years, Ascon. in Cic.

When the censors acted improperly, they might be brought to a trial, as they sometimes were, by a tribune of the commons, Liv. xxiv. 43. xliii. 15, 16. Nay, we find a tribune ordering a censor to be seized and led to prison, Id. ix. 34.; and even to be thrown from the Tarpeian rock, Id. Epit. 59. Plin. vii. 44. s. 45.; but both were prevented by their colleagues, Plin. ibid. 43. s. 45.

Two things were peculiar to the censors: 1. No one could be elected a second time to that office, according to the law of C. Martius Rutilus, who refused a second censorship when conferred on him, hence surnamed CENSORINUS, Valer. Max. iv. 1.—2. If one of the censors died, another was not substituted in his room; but his surviving colleague was obliged to resign his office, Liv. xxiv. 43. xxvii. 6. Plutarch. Q. Rom. 50.

The death of a censor was esteemed ominous, because it had happened that a censor died, and another was chosen in his place, in that lustrum in which Rome was taken by the Gauls, Liv. v. 31. vi. 27.

The censors entered on their office immediately after their election. It was customary for them, when the comitia were over, to sit down on their curule chairs in the Campus Martius before the temple of

* "A scandalous offender was assuredly always punished with civil degradation by the laws of Rome, as he was with aruía at Athens: the very notion of a judicium turpe implies that this was its effect. A guardian or partner convicted of fraud, a perjured witness, a thief or robber, and other criminals of the kind, forfeited their civil rank, and were expelled from their order and their tribe by the sentence that pronounced them guilty. In such cases the censors merely executed the judgment of the court. So again when they struck out a man who had chosen a degrading occupation, or been turned ignominiously out of the army, they assuredly could not restore such an offender to his civil rank, even with their united voice. (Cic. pro Cluent. 42. Turpi judicio damnati in perpetuum omni honore ac dignitate privantur.) But the case was different when they acted on their private conviction of a man's unworthiness, and not in execution of a judicial sentence." - Nieb ii. p. $96.