Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

CENSOR.

81

CENSUS.

The censors, however, did not receive the re-
venues of the state. All the public money
was paid into the aerarium, which was en-
tirely under the jurisdiction of the senate;
and all disbursements were made by order of
this body, which employed the quaestors as
its officers. [Akrarium ; Sexatus.]—In one
important department the censors were en-
trusted with the expenditure of the public
money; though the actual payments were
no doubt made by the quaestors. The cen-
sors had the general superintendence of all
the public buildings and works (opera pub-
lica) ; and to meet the expenses connected
with this part of their duties, the senate voted
them a certain sum of money or certain re-
venues, to which they were restricted, but
which they might at the same time employ
according to their discretion. They had to
see that the temples and all other public build-
ings were in a good state of repair (aedes
sacras tueri and scu ta tecta exigere), that no
public places were encroached upon by the
occupation of private persons (loca tueri), and
that the aquaeducts, roads, drains, &c. were
properly attended to. The repairs of the
public works and the keeping of them in pro-
per condition were let out by the censors by
public auction to the lowest bidder. The
persons who undertook the contract were
called conductores, mancipes, redemptores,
susceptores, &c. ; and the duties they had to
discharge were specified in the Leges Cen-
soriac. The censors had also to superintend
the expenses connected with the worship of
the gods. In these respects it is not easy to
define with accuracy the respective duties of
the censors and aediles : but it may be re-
marked in general that the superintendence
of the aediles had more of a police character,
while that of the censors had reference to all
financial matters.'—After the censors had per-
formed their various duties and taken the
census, the lustrum or solemn purification of
the people followed. When the censors en-
tered upon their office, they drew lots to see
which of them should perform this purifica-
tion (lustrum faccre or condere), but both
censors were obliged of course to be present
at the ceremony. [Lustrum.]—In the Ro-
man and Latin colonies and in the municipia
there were censors, who likewise bore the
name of quinqucnnales. They are spoken of
under Colonia. A census was sometimes
taken in the provinces, even under the re-
public ; but there seems to have been no
general census taken in the provinces till the
time of Augustus. At Rome the census still
continued to be taken under the empire, but
the old ceremonies connected with it were no
longer continued, and the ceremony of the

lustration was not performed after the time
of Vespasian.—The word census, besides the
meaning of "valuation" of a person's estate,
has other significations, which must be briefly
mentioned: 1. It signified the amount of a
person's property, and hence we read of
census senatorius, the estate of a senator;
census equestris, the estate of an eques.
2. The lists of the censors. 3. The tax
which depended upon the valuation in the
census.

CENSUS.—(1) Greek.—The Greek term
for a man's property as ascertained by the
census, as well as for the act of ascertaining
it, is TLfirjfjLa. The only Greek state concern-
ing whose arrangement of the census we have
any satisfactory information, is Athens. Pre-
vious to the time of Solon no census had been
instituted at Athens. According to his cen-
sus, all citizens were divided into four classes :
1.. I'entucosiomedimni (Ileira/cocriofie'iSi/iMH),
or persons possessing landed property which
yielded an annual income of at least 500
medimni of dry or liquid produce. 2. Sip-
pets ("Urn-eis), i. e. knights or persons able
to keep a war-horse, were those whose lands
yielded an annual produce of at least 300 me-
dimni, whence they are also called Tpicucocri.op.e-
cup-rat. 3. Zeugitae (ZevyiVcu), i. e. persons
able to keep a yoke of oxen (fe^yos), were
those whose annual income consisted of at
least 150 medimni. 4. The Thctes (©t^tcs)
contained all the rest of the free population,
whose income was below that of the Zeugitae.
The constitution of Athens, so long as it was
based upon these classes, was a timoeraey
(Tt/xo/cparta, or a770 Tip.Tjp.aTtui' TroAiTeta). The
highest magistracy at Athens, or the archon-
ship, was at first accessible only to persons
of the first cLiss, until Aristides threw all the
state offices open to all classes indiscrimi-
nately. The maintenance of the republic
mainly devolved upon the first three classes,
the last being exempted from all taxes. As
the land in the legislation of Solon was re-
garded as the capital which yielded an annual
income, he regulated his system of taxation
by the value of the land, which was treated
as the taxable capital. Lists of this taxable
property (aTroypa^ai) were kept at first by
the naucrari, who also had to conduct the
census, and afterwards by the demarchi.—As
property is a fluctuating thing, the census
was repeated from time to time, but the
periods differed in the various parts of
Greece, for in some a census was held every
year, and in others every two or four years.
At Athens every person had to state the
amount of his property, and if there was any
doubt about his honesty, it seems that a
counter-valuation(an-n-iV'/o"'?) might be made.

o