Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 29
Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, Ed.

37. While the consuls were thus employed in opposite regions, the censors Marcus Livius and Gaius Claudius at Rome meanwhile publicly read the list of senators. Quintus Fabius Maximus was chosen princes for the second time.¹ Seven men received their “mark,”² but no one who had occupied a curule chair. [2] Repairs to public buildings and their roofs they enforced strictly and with the greatest fidelity. They let the contract for the making of a street leading out of the Cattle Market, on both sides of the spectators' stands, as far as the Temple of Venus,³ also for the erection of a Temple of the Great Mother⁴ on the Palatine. [3] They also established a new revenue from the yearly production of salt. Both at Rome and throughout Italy salt was then sold at one-sixth of an as.The censors let [p. 353]contracts for the sale of salt at the same price at⁵ Rome, at a higher price even in market-towns and local centres,⁶ and at prices which varied from place to place. [4] This source of revenue was generally believed to have been devised by only one of the censors, who was angry with the people because he had formerly been condemned by an unjust verdict; [5] and that in the price of salt those tribes by whose efforts he had been condemned were most heavily burdened.⁷ Hence the cognomen Salinator was bestowed upon Livius.

[6] The ceremony of purification was completed later than usual because the censors had sent men to the various provinces to report the number of Roman citizens in each of the armies. [7] Including these, 214,000 men⁸ were listed. Gaius Claudius Nero concluded the rite of purification. Then they received the census lists of the twelve colonies⁹ presented by their own censors, as had never been done before. [8] The purpose was that documents, to show what was their strength in the number of soldiers and what in money, might be found in the public records. Then they began to take the census of the knights; and it happened that both of the censors had horses from the state. [9] When they had reached the Pollia tribe, in which stood the name of [p. 355]Marcus Livius, and while the herald was hesitating¹⁰ to summon the censor himself, Nero said, “Summon Marcus Livius!” And whether as still nursing their ancient quarrel, or priding himself on an ill-timed display of strictness because he had been condemned by a verdict of the people, he ordered Marcus Livius to sell his horse.¹¹ [10] Likewise Marcus Livius, when they had reached the Arniensis tribe and the name of his colleague, ordered Gaius Claudius to sell his horse for two reasons: one because he had given false testimony¹² against Livius, the other that he had not honestly been reconciled with him. [11] Equally shameful at the close of their censorship was their contest in besmirching each the other's reputation to the detriment of his own. [12] When Gaius Claudius had taken the oath that he had complied with the laws, upon going up into the Treasury and giving the names of those whom he was leaving as mere tax-payers,¹³ he gave the name of his colleague. [13] Then Marcus Livius came into the Treasury, and except for the Maecia tribe, which had neither condemned him nor after his condemnation voted for him either for consul or for censor, he left the entire Roman people, thirty-four tribes, as mere tax-payers, alleging that they had [14??] both condemned him, an innocent man, and after his condemnation had made him consul and censor, and could not deny that they had erred either once in their verdict or twice in the elections. [15] He said that among the thirty-four tribes Gaius Claudius also would be a mere tax-payer; and that if he had a precedent [p. 357]for twice leaving the same man a mere tax-payer,¹⁴ he would have left Gaius Claudius among them with express mention of his name. [16] A perverted contest between the censors in regard to their “marks”; but to the fickleness of the people it was a rebuke worthy of a censor and in keeping with the earnestness of those times. [17] Since the censors were unpopular, Gnaeus Baebius, a tribune of the plebs,¹⁵ thinking it an opportunity to advance himself at their expense, named a day for both to appear before the people. That procedure was quashed by unanimity among the senators, lest the censorship should be subject thereafter to the caprice of the populace.