Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CENSOR. CENSOR. 265
to the highest bidder for the space of a lustrum or had been granted to them by the senate. (Liv.
five years. The act of letting was called venditio xl. 51, xliv. 16.) They were let out to contractors,
or locatio, and seems to have taken place in the like the other works mentioned above, and when
month of March (Macrob. Sat. i. 12), in a public they were completed, the censors had to see that
place in Rome (Cic. de Leg. Agr. i. 3, ii. 21). the work was performed in accordance with the
The terms on which they were let, together with contract: this was called opus probare or in accepthe rights and duties of the purchasers, were all tunee referre. (Cic. Verr. i. 57; Liv. iv. 22, xlv.
specified in the leges censoriae, which the censors 15; Lex Puteol. p. 73, Spang.)
published in every case before the bidding com- The aediles had likewise a superintendence over
mnenced. (Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. 1. ~ 12, Veri. iii. 7, the public buildings; and it is not easy to define
de Nat. Deor. iii. 19, Varr. de Re Rust. ii. 1.) with accuracy the respective duties of the censors
For further particulars see PUBLICANI. The cen- and aediles: but it may be remarked in general
sors also possessed the right, though probably not that the superintendence of the aediles had more
without the concurrence of the senate, of imposing of a police character, while that of the censors had
new vectigalia (Liv. xxix. 37, xl. 51), and even reference to all financial matters.
of selling the land belonging to the state (Liv. After the censors had performed their various
xxxii. 7). It would thus appear that it was the duties and taken the census, the lutstbun or solemn
duty of the censors to bring forward a budget for purification of the people followed. When the
a lustrum, and to take care that the income of the censors entered upon their office, they drew lots to
state was sufficient for its expenditure during that see which of them should perform this purification
time. So far their duties resembled those of a (lustrumrfauceere or condere, Varr. L. L. vi. 86; Liv.
modern minister of finance. The censors, how- xxix. 37, xxxv. 9, xxxviii. 36, xlii. ] 0); but both
ever, did not receive the revenues of the state. censors were obliged of course to be present at the
All the public money was paid into the aerarium, ceremony. [LUsTRUnI.]
which was entirely under the jurisdiction of the In the Roman and Latin colonies and in the
senate; and all disbursements were made by order municipia there were censors, -who likewise bore
of this body, which employed the quaestors as its the name of quinquennales. They are spoken of
officers. [AERARvIUM; SENATUS.] under COLONIA.
In one important department the censors were A census was sometimes taken in the provinces,
entrusted with the expenditure of the public money; even under the republic (Cic. Verr. ii. 53, 56); but
though the actual payments were no doubt made by there seems to have been no general census taken
the quaestors. The censors had the general super- in the provinces till the time of Augustus. This
intendence of all the public buildings and works emperor caused an accurate account to be taken of
(operapublica); and to meet the expenses connected iall persons in the Roman dominion, together with
with this part of their duties, the senate voted them the amount of their property (Ev. Lucae, ii. 1, 2;
a certain slim of money or certain revenues, to which Joseph. Ant. Jud. xvii. 13. ~ 5, xviii. 1. ~ i.
they were restricted, but which they might at the 2. ~ 1.); and a similar census was taken from time
same time employ according to their discretion. to time by succeeding emperors, at first every
(Polyb. vi. 13; Liv. xl. 46, xliv. 16.) They had ten, and subsequently every fifteen years. (Sato see that the temples and all other public build- vigny, Rnliiscl/e Sterezverfi ssung, in Zeitscl}Ot, vol.
ings were in a good state of repair (aedes sacras vi. pp. 375-383.) The emperor sent into the
tueri and srte trecta exigere, Liv. xxiv. 18, xxix. provinces especial officers to take the census, wrao
37, xlii. 3, xlv. 15), that no public places were en- were called Cen'sitores (Dig. 50. tit. 15. s. 4. ~ 1
croached upon by the occupation of private persons Cassiod. Var. ix. 11; Orelli, Inscr. No. 3652);
(loca tuee-i, Liv. xlii. 3, xliii. 16), and that the but the duty was sometimes discharged by the imlaquaeducts, roads, drains, &c. were properly at- perial legati. (Tac. Ann. i. 31, ii. 6.) The Censitended to. [AQuaEDUCTUS; VIAE; CLOACAE.] torts were assisted by subordinate officers, called
The repairs of the public works and the keeping Censzuales, who made out the lists, &c. (Capitol.
of them in proper condition were let out by the Gordicn. 12; Symmach. Ep. x. 43; Cod. Theod.
censors by public auction to the lowest bidder, just 8. tit. 2.) At Rome the census still continued to
as the vectigalia were let out to the highest bidder. be taken under the empire, but the old ceremonies
These expenses were called ultrotributa; and hence connected with it were no longer continued, andl the
we frequently find vectigalia and ultrotributa con- ceremony of the lustration was not performed after
trasted with one another. (Liv. xxxix. 44, xliii. the time of Vespasian. The two great jurists,
16.) The persons who undertook the contract Paulus and Ulpian, each wrote works on the
were called conductores, imasccipes, redeitptores, szs- census in the imperial period; and several extracts
ccptores, &c.; and the duties they had to discharge from these works are given in a chapter in the
were specified in the Leges Censoriac. The censors Digest (50. tit. 15), to whiclh we must refer our
had also to superintend the expenses connected readers for further details respecting the imperial
with the worship of the gods, even for instance the census.
feeding of the sacred geese in the Capitol, which The word census, besides the meaning of" valnawere also let out on contract. (Plut. Quaest. Rom. tion " of a person's estate, has other significations,
98; Plin. H. N. x. 22; Cic. pro Rose. Am. 20.) which must be briefly mentioned: 1. It signified
Besides keeping existing public works in a proper the amount of a person's property, and hence we
state of repair, the censors also constructed new read of census senatoriuzs, the estate of a senator;
ones, either for ornament or utility, both in Rome census equestris, the estate of an eques. 2. The lists
and in other parts of Italy, such as temples, of the censors. 3. The tax which depended upon
basilicae, theatres, porticoes, fora, walls of towns, the valuation in the census. The Lexicons will
aqueducts, harbours, bridges, cloacae, roads, &c. supply examples of these meanings.
These works were either performed by them jointly, (A considerable portion of the preceding article
or they divided between them the money, which has been taken from Becker's excellent account