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[p. 171] little or no property and money. However, the class of proletarii was somewhat more honourable in fact and in name than that of the capite censi; for in times of danger to the State, when there was a scarcity of men of military age, they were enrolled for hasty service, 1 and arms were furnished them at public expense. And they were called, not capite censi, but by a more auspicious name derived from their duty and function of producing offspring, for although they could not greatly aid the State with what small property they had, yet they added to the population of their country by their power of begetting children. Gaius Marius is said to have been the first, according to some in the war with the Cimbri in a most critical period for our country, or more probably, as Sallust says, in the Jugurthine war, to have enrolled soldiers from the capite censi, since such an act was unheard of before that time. Adsidaus in the Twelve Tables 2 is used of one who is rich and well to do, 3 either because he contributed 'asses' (that is, money) when the exigencies of the State required it, or from his 'assiduity' in making contributions according to the amount of his property." 4 Now the words of Sallust in the Iugurthine War about Gaius Marius and the capite censi are these: 5 “He himself in the meantime enrolled soldiers, not according to the classes, or in the manner of our forefathers, but allowing anyone to volunteer, for the most part the lowest class (capite censos). Some say that he did this through lack of good men, ”
1 That is, to meet a tumultus, “a rebellion” or irregular warfare. At first used as a military term, tumultuarius later acquired a general sense; cf. tumultuario rogo, “on a hastily erected pyre,” Suet. Calig. lix.
2 i. 4, 10.
3 locuples seems to be derived from locus, in the sense of “land,” and the root ple- of pleo and plenus.
4 Both these derivations are fanciful; adsiduus is connected with adsideo, as the grammarian Caper knew (Gram. Lat. vii. 108. 5, Keil), and means “a permanent settler.”
5 Jug. lxxxvi. 2.
The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1927.
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