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

CENTESIMA.

82

CESTUS.

This system of taxation according to classes,
and based upon the possession of productive
estates, underwent a considerable change in
the time of the Peloponnesian war, though the
divisions into classes themselves continued
to be observed for a considerable time after.
As the wants of the republic increased, and
as many citizens were possessed of large
property, without being landed proprietors,
the original land-tax was changed into a
property-tax. This property-tax was called
eicri/iopa, concerning which see EismoRA.
Compare Leiturgiae ; and for the taxes paid
by resident aliens, Metoici.— (2) Roman.
[Censor.]

CENTESIMA, namely pars, or the hun-
dredth part, also called vectiyal rerum vfiita-
lium, or centesima rerum vetialium, was a tax
of one per cent, levied at Home and in Italy
upon all goods that were exposed for public
sale at auctions. It was collected by persons
called coactores. This tax was perhaps in-
troduced after the civil war between Marius
and Sulla. Its produce was assigned by
Augustus to the aerarium militare. Tiberius
reduced the tax to one half per cent, (ducen-
tc.-iima), after he had changed Cappadocia
into a province, and had thereby increased
the revenue of the empire. Caligula in the
beginning of his reign abolished the tax alto-
gether for Italy.

CENTTJMYIRI, were judices, who resem-
bled other judices in this respect, that they
decided cases under the authority of a magis-
trate ; but they differed from other judices
in being a definite body or collegium. This
collegium seems to have been divided into
four parts, each of which sometimes sat by
itself. The origin of the court is unknown.
According to an ancient writer, three were
chosen out of each tribe, and consequently
the whole number out of the 33 tribes would
be 105, who, in round numbers, were called
the hundred men. If the centumviri were
chosen from the tribes, this seems a strong
presumption in favour of the high antiquity
of the court. It was the practice to set up a
spear in the place where the centumviri were
sitting, and accordingly the word hantn, or
hasta ccntumriralis, is sometimes used as
equivalent to the words judicium centum-
rirale. The praetor presided in this court.
The jurisdiction of the centumviri was chiefly
confined to civil matters, but it appears that
crimina sometimes came under their cogni-
zance. The younger riiny, who practised
in this court, makes frequent allusions to it
in his letters.

CENTUMA. [Exercitus ; Comitia.]

CEXTURIATA COMITIA. [Comitia.]

CEN'TUIUO. [Exercitus.]

CEXTUSSIS. [As.]

CERA (ktjpos), wax. For its employment
in painting, see Pictuha ; and for its appli-
cation as a writing material, see Tabulae and
Testamentum.

CEREALIA, a festival celebrated at Rome
in honour of Ceres, whose wanderings in
search of her lost daughter Proserpine were
represented by women, clothed in white, run-
ning about with lighted torches. During its
continuance, games were celebrated in the
Circus Maximus, the spectators of which ap-
peared in white ; but on any occasion of
public mourning the games and festivals were
not celebrated at all, as the matrons could
not appear at them except ill white. The
day of the Cerealia is doubtful ; some think
it was the ides or 13 th of April, others the
7th of the same month.

CEREVISIA, CERVISIA {(v9oi), ale or
beer, was almost, or altogether unknot].
the Greeks and Romans ; hut it was used very
generally by the surrounding nations, whose
soil and climate were less favourable to the
growth of vines. According to Herodotus, the
Egyptians commonly drank " barley wine ;"
and Diodorus Siculus says that the Egyptian
beer was nearly equal to wine in strength and
flavour. The Iberians and Thracians, and the
people in the north of Asia Minor, instead of
drinking their beer out of cups, placed it
before them in a large bowl or vase, which
waa sometimes of gold or silver. This being
full to the brim with the grains, as well as
the fermented liquor, the guests, when they
pledged one another, drank together out of
the same bowl by stooping down to it,
although, when this token of friendship was
not intended, they adopted the more refined
method of sucking up the fluid through tubes
of cane. The Suevi and other northern na-
tions offered to their gods libations of beer,
and expected that to drink it in the presence
of Odin would be among the delights of
Valhalla.

CEROMA (icjjpwp.a), the oil mixed with
wax (icrjpos) with which wrestlers were
anointed ; also the place where they were
anointed, and, in later times, the place where
they wrestled.

CERUCIII. [Xavis.]

CESTRUM. [Pictura.]

CESTUS. (1) The thongs or bands of lea-
ther, which were tied round the hands of
boxers, in order to render their blows more
powerful (Jp.di't«, or ip-ai/Tes ttuktikol). The
cestus was used by boxers in the earliest
times, and is mentioned in the Iliad ; but in
the heroic times it consisted merely of thongs
of leather, and differed from the cestus used
in later times in the public games, which was