Censor
（
τιμητής). One of the officials whose duty it was (after
B.C. 444) to take the place of the consuls in superintending the quinquennial census. The
office was one of the higher magistracies, and could only be held once by the same person. It
was at first confined to the patricians; but in B.C. 351 was thrown open to the plebeians, and
after 339 one of the censors was obliged by law to be a plebeian. On the occasion of a census,
the censors were elected soon after the accession to office of the new consuls, who presided
over the assembly. They were usually chosen from the number of
consulares, or persons who had been consuls. Accordingly the censorship was regarded,
if not as the highest office of State, at least as the highest step in the ladder of
promotion. The newly elected censors entered immediately, after due summons, upon their
office. Its duration was fixed in B.C. 433 to eighteen months, but it could be extended for
certain purposes. For the object of carrying out their proper duties—the census and
the solemn purification (
lustrum) that concluded it—they had
the power of summoning the people to the Campus Martius, where, after B.C. 434, they had an
official residence in the Villa Publica. The tribunes had no right of veto as against their
proceedings in taking the census; indeed, so far as this part of their duties was concerned,
they were irresponsible, being bound only in conscience by the oath which they took on
entering upon and laying down their office. Having no executive powers, they had no lictors,
but only messengers (
viatores) and heralds (
praecones). Their insignia were the
sella curulis and a purple
toga. The collegiate character of the office was so pronounced that, if one censor died the
other abdicated. From the simple act of taking the census and putting up the new list of
citizens, their functions were in course of time extended, so as to include a number of very
important duties. Among these must be mentioned in particular a general superintendence of
conduct (
regimen morum). In virtue of this they had the power of setting
a stigma upon any citizen, regardless of his position, for any conceivable offence for which
there was no legal punishment. Such offences were neglect of one's property, celibacy,
dissolution of marriage, bad training or bad treatment of children, undue severity to slaves
and clients, irregular life, abuse of power in office, impiety, perjury, and the like. The
offender might be punished with degradation—that is, the censors could expel a man
from the Senate or the
ordo equester; or they could
transfer him from a country tribe into one of the less respectable city tribes, and thus
curtail his right of voting; or, again, they could expel him from the tribes altogether, and
thus completely deprive him of the right of voting. This last penalty might be accompanied by
a fine in the shape of additional taxation. The censors had also the power of issuing edicts
against practices which threatened the simplicity of ancient Roman manners—for
instance, against luxury. These edicts had not the force of law, but their transgression might
be punished by the next censors. The effect of the censorial stigma and punishment lasted
until the next census. The consent of both censors was required to ratify it, and it directly
affected men only, not women. The censors exercised a special superintendence over the
equites and the Senate. They had the
lectio Senatus, or power
of ejecting unworthy members and of passing over new candidates for the senatorial
rank—as, for instance, those who had held curule offices. The
equites had to pass singly, each leading his horse, before the censors in the Forum,
after the completion of the general census. (See Travectio.) An
honourable dismissal was then given to the superannuated or the infirm; if an
eques was now found, or had previously been found, unworthy of his order (as for
neglecting to care for his horse), he was expelled from it. The vacant places were filled up
from the number of such individuals as appeared from the general census to be suitable. (See
Equites.) There were certain other duties attached
to the censorship, for the due performance of which they were responsible to the people, and
subject to the authority of the Senate and the veto of the tribunes.
1.
The letting of the public domain lands and taxes to the highest bidder.
2.
The acceptance of tenders from the lowest bidder for works to be paid for by the State. In
both these cases the period was limited to five years.
3.
Superintendence of the construction and maintenance of public buildings and grounds,
temples, bridges, sewers, aqueducts, streets, monuments, and the like.
After B.C. 167, Roman citizens were freed from all taxation; and after the time of Marius,
the liability to military service was made general. The censorship was now a superfluous
office, for its original object, the census, was hardly necessary. Sulla disliked the censors
for their power of meddling in matters of private conduct, and accordingly, in his
constitution of B.C. 81, the office was, if not formally abolished, practically superseded.
It was restored in B.C. 70, in the consulship of Pompey and Crassus, and continued to exist
for a long time, until under the Empire it disappeared as a separate office. The emperor kept
in his own hands the right of taking the census. He took over also the other functions of the
censor, especially the supervision of morals, a proceeding in which he had Caesar's example
to support him. The care of public buildings, however, he committed to a special body.
