zens and of their property; but this, which seems at first sight to be no more than the drawing up of a mere statistical report, became in fact, from the large discretion allowed to every Roman officer, a political power of the highest importance. The censors made out the returns of the free population; but they did more; they divided it according to its civil distinctions, and drew up a list of the senators', a list of the equites, a list of the members of the several tribes, or of those citizens who enjoyed the right of voting, and a list of the ærarians, consisting of those freedmen, naturalized strangers, and others, who being enrolled in no tribe, possessed no vote in the comitia, but still enjoyed all the private rights of Roman citizens. Now the lists thus drawn up by the censors were regarded as legal evidence of a man's condition: the state could refer to no more authentic standard than to the returns deliberately made by one of its highest magistrates, who was responsible to it for their being drawn up properly. He would, in the first place, be the sole judge of many questions of fact, such as whether a citizen had the qualifications required by law or custom for the rank which he claimed, or whether he had ever incurred any judicial sentence which rendered him infamous but from thence the transition was easy, 8 mulæ censendi subjiceretur. Livy, IV. 8. 7 See the accounts of the census in Livy, XXIV. 18, and XXXIX. 42. 44. See also Zonaras, VII. 19. 8 For instance, whether a man claiming to belong to one of the mons. CHAP. XVII. Thus CHAP. according to Roman notions, to the decision of questions of right; such as whether a citizen was really worthy of retaining his rank, whether he had not committed some act as justly degrading as those which incurred the sentence of the law; and in this manner the censor gave a definite power to public opinion, and whatever acts or habits were at variance with the general feeling, he held himself authorized to visit with disgrace or disfranchisement. was established a direct check upon many vices or faults which law, in almost all countries, has not ventured to notice. Whatever was contrary to good morals, or to the customs of their fathers, Roman citizens ought to be ashamed to practise: if a man' behaved tyrannically to his wife or children, if he was guilty of excessive cruelty even to his slaves, if he neglected his land", if he indulged in habits of extravagant expense 2, or followed any calling which was regarded as degrading, the offence was justly noted by the censors, and the offender was struck off from the list of senators, if his rank were so high; or if he were an ordinary citizen, he was expelled from his tribe, and reduced to the class of the ærarians. turpe," and this was incurred in 10 10 Dionysius, XX. 3. Fragm. Mai. A. Gellius, IV. 12. 12 Dionysius, XX. 3. See the well-known story of the censor Fabricius expelling Rufinus from the senate, because he had ten pounds' weight of silver plate in his possession. 13 As, for instance, that of an actor. See Livy, VII. 2. XVII. Beyond this the censor had no power of degra- CHAP. dation 14; for the private rights of Roman citizens could not be taken away by any magistrate; the sentence could only affect his honours, or such privileges as were strictly political. the Power of the censors de- over the property of also the people. Yet the censors had a farther hold even on ærarians, nor was their power limited to the grading a citizen from his rank; they could affect his fortune. It was their business, as I have said, to make a return of the property of every Roman, and of its value; for the taxes were levied according to this return, and here too its evidence was decisive. Every citizen presented at the census a detailed account of his property; he stated the name1 and situation of his landed estate, what pro 14 There is a remarkable passage in Livy, XLV. 15, in which C. Claudius, one of the censors in the year 584, is represented as denying the right of the censor to deprive any man of his vote: he could remove him from a more honourable tribe to a less honourable, but he could not remove him from all the thirty-five tribes, and so, in effect, disfranchise him. And yet the expression "in ærarios referri," is equivalent to "in Cæritum tabulas referri," and this is a well-known designation of the "civitas sine suffragio;" for Gellius says expressly, that "in has tabulas censores referri jubebant, quos notæ causâ suffragiis privabant." XVI. 13. It would seem, however, that "tribu movere,' and "in ærarios referre," were two distinct sentences, and that the former did indeed only imply a removal from a higher tribe to a lower (in which sense it probably 15 See all these particulars in the XVII. CHAP. portion of it was arable, what was meadow, what vineyard, and what olive ground. He was even to number his vines and olive trees, and to the whole thus minutely described he was to affix his own valuation. He was to observe the same rules with regard to his slaves, and undoubtedly with regard to his horses and cattle; for all these came under the same class of res mancipii. But the censor had an unlimited power of setting on all these things a higher valuation, and consequently of subjecting them to a higher rate of taxation. Further, we have instances IG of a censor's calling for a return of other articles of property, such as clothing, jewels, and carriages, which were not returned in the regular order of the census; and on these he would set an extravagant valuation, to ten times their actual worth. Nor does it appear that in these cases there was any remedy for the person aggrieved: the censor's decision was final. On the return of taxable property thus made, the senate, in case of need, levied a certain rate, ordinarily, as it seems, of no more than one per thousand; but raised, as circumstances might require, to two, three, or four per thousand. For it must be understood that this property tax, or tributum, was mostly a war tax, and not a part of the regular re 16 Livy, XXXIX. 44. Ornamenta et vestem muliebrem et vehicula .. in censum referre jussit: uti decies tanto pluris quam quanti essent æstimarentur. 17 This was the proportion observed in the tribute imposed on the twelve defaulting colonies in the second Punic war; Livy, XXIX. 15; and Niebuhr concludes that it was the ordinary rate. "Three per thousand" is mentioned as the rate fixed by Cato and Valerius Flaccus in their severe censorship in 568. Livy, XXXIX. 44. XVII. venues of the state: it might happen, therefore, that CHAP. no property-tax was levied, and in that case the censor's surcharge, or over-valuation, would have been inoperative; but wars were so frequent, and the necessities of the state so great, in the early periods of the Roman history, that there was probably no one term of five years in which the tributum was not needed, and consequently no return of any censors which was not carried into effect. We are told also that the censors, on some occasions, not only put their own valuation on the property returned at the census, but also fixed the rate to be levied upon it: being sure in this, as in so many other instances, to have their acts sanctioned by the senate, if it did not appear that they had been influenced by any unworthy motives. In addition to this great power with regard to the Over the vectigalia, or taxes, or tributa, the censors had the entire manage- property of ment of the regular revenues of the state, or of its monwealth. vectigalia. They were the Commonwealth's stewards, and to their hands all its property was entrusted. But these state demesnes were ample and various, including arable land, vineyards, pastures, forests, mines, harbours, fisheries, and buildings; the letting or farming of all these belonged wholly to the censors; the harbours, including the portoria or customs, which appear to have been levied as a harbour, wharfage, and perhaps warehouse duty. They were thus a charge paid by the merchant for his use 18 Livy, XXXIX. 44. sub nutu atque arbitrio (censorum 19 Ut vectigalia populi Romani essent. Livy, IV. 8. the Com |