The censor was a magistrate in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census , supervising public morality , and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances.
181-629: Established under the Roman Republic , power of the censor was limited in subject matter but absolute within his sphere: in matters reserved for the censors, no magistrate could oppose his decisions, and only another censor who succeeded him could cancel those decisions. Censors were also given unusually long terms of office; unlike other elected offices of the Republic, which (excluding certain priests elected for life) had terms of 12 months or less, censors' terms were generally 18 months to 5 years (depending on
362-482: A lex (roughly "law"). A censorial mark was moreover not valid unless both censors agreed. The ignominia was thus only a transitory reduction of status, which does not even appear to have deprived a magistrate of his office, and certainly did not disqualify persons labouring under it for obtaining a magistracy, for being appointed as judices by the praetor , or for serving in the Roman army . Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus
543-612: A great victory for Metellus. Rome then besieged the last Carthaginian strongholds in Sicily, Lilybaeum and Drepana , but these cities were impregnable by land. Publius Claudius Pulcher , the consul of 249, recklessly tried to take the latter from the sea, but suffered a terrible defeat ; his colleague Lucius Junius Pullus likewise lost his fleet off Lilybaeum . Without the corvus , Roman warships had lost their advantage. By now, both sides were drained and could not undertake large-scale operations. The only military activity during this period
724-418: A " curule chair " ( sella curulis ), but some doubt exists with respect to their official dress. A well-known passage of Polybius describes the use of the imagines at funerals; we may conclude that a consul or praetor wore the purple-bordered toga praetexta , one who triumphed the embroidered toga picta , and the censor a purple toga peculiar to him, but other writers speak of their official dress as being
905-581: A coalition of Latins at the battles of Vesuvius and the Trifanum . The Latins submitted to Roman rule. A Second Samnite War began in 327 BC. The war ended with Samnite defeat at the Battle of Bovianum in 305 BC. By 304 BC, Rome had annexed most Samnite territory and begun to establish colonies there, but in 298 BC the Samnites rebelled, and defeated a Roman army, in a Third Samnite War . After this success, it built
1086-408: A coalition of several previous enemies of Rome. The war ended with Roman victory in 290 BC. At the Battle of Populonia , in 282 BC, Rome finished off the last vestiges of Etruscan power in the region. In the 4th century, plebeians gradually obtained political equality with patricians. The first plebeian consular tribunes were elected in 400. The reason behind this sudden gain is unknown, but it
1267-413: A colleague in his son Titus . Domitian assumed the title of "perpetual censor" ( censor perpetuus ), but this example was not imitated by succeeding emperors. In the reign of Decius , the elder Valerian was nominated to the censorship, but declined the position. The duties of the censors may be divided into three classes, all of which were closely connected with one another: The original business of
1448-533: A consequence of an Etruscan occupation of Rome rather than a popular revolution. According to Rome's traditional histories, Tarquin made several attempts to retake the throne, including the Tarquinian conspiracy , which involved Brutus's own sons, the war with Veii and Tarquinii , and finally the war between Rome and Clusium . The attempts to restore the monarchy did not succeed. The first Roman republican wars were wars of expansion . One by one, Rome defeated both
1629-552: A division such that the citizen-soldiers had the responsibility of electing the consuls and praetors, and therefore, their leaders. The Roman army was based on units called centuries , which were comparable to Companies in a modern army. While Centuries in the Roman army always consisted of about one hundred soldiers, Centuries in the Centuriate Assembly usually did not. This was because the property qualifications for membership in
1810-428: A general principle, the only ones eligible for the office of censor were those who had previously been consuls, but there were a few exceptions. At first, there was no law to prevent a person being censor twice, but the only person who was elected to the office twice was Gaius Marcius Rutilus in 265 BC. In that year, he originated a law stating that no one could be elected censor twice. In consequence of this, he received
1991-435: A generation, the Republic fell into civil war again in 49 BC between Julius Caesar and Pompey . Despite his victory and appointment as dictator for life , Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar's heir Octavian and lieutenant Mark Antony defeated Caesar's assassins in 42 BC, but they eventually split. Antony's defeat alongside his ally and lover Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and
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#17328582378592172-513: A long-lasting alliance with Rome. In 262 BC, the Romans moved to the southern coast and besieged Akragas . In order to raise the siege, Carthage sent reinforcements, including 60 elephants—the first time they used them—but still lost the battle . Nevertheless, Rome could not take all of Sicily because Carthage's naval superiority prevented it from effectively besieging coastal cities. Using a captured Carthaginian ship as blueprint, Rome therefore launched
2353-409: A majority of centuries voted in the same way on a given measure, the voting ended, and the matter was decided. Only the Centuriate Assembly could declare war or elect the highest-ranking Roman magistrates : consuls , praetors and censors . In addition, the Centuriate Assembly served as the highest court of appeal in certain judicial cases (in particular, cases involving perduellio ), and ratified
2534-409: A man with their "censorial mark" ( nota censoria ) in case he had been convicted of a crime in an ordinary court of justice, and had already suffered punishment for it. The consequence of such a nota was only ignominia and not infamia . Infamia and the censorial verdict was not a judicium or res judicata , for its effects were not lasting, but might be removed by the following censors, or by
2715-433: A massive construction program and built 100 quinqueremes in only two months. It also invented a new device, the corvus , a grappling engine that enabled a crew to board an enemy ship. The consul for 260 BC, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina , lost the first naval skirmish of the war against Hannibal Gisco at Lipara , but his colleague Gaius Duilius won a great victory at Mylae . He destroyed or captured 44 ships and
2896-463: A mechanism through which electors could appeal decisions of the presiding magistrate. There were also religious officials (known as Augurs ) either in attendance or on-call, who would be available to help interpret any signs from the Gods (omens), since the Romans believed that their gods let their approval or disapproval with proposed actions be known. In addition, a preliminary search for omens ( auspices )
3077-652: A new elite, called the nobiles , or Nobilitas . By the early 3rd century BC, Rome had established itself as the major power in Italy, but had not yet come into conflict with the dominant military powers of the Mediterranean : Carthage and the Greek kingdoms. In 282, several Roman warships entered the harbour of Tarentum , triggering a violent reaction from the Tarentine democrats, who sank some. The Roman embassy sent to investigate
3258-438: A new one. The princeps himself had to be a former censor. After the lists had been completed, the number of citizens was counted up, and the sum total announced. Accordingly, we find that in the account of a census, the number of citizens is likewise usually given. They are in such cases spoken of as capita ("heads"), sometimes with the addition of the word civium ("of the citizens"), and sometimes not. Hence, to be registered in
3439-512: A noblewoman, Lucretia . The tradition asserted that the monarchy was abolished in a revolution led by the semi-mythical Lucius Junius Brutus and the king's powers were then transferred to two separate consuls elected to office for a term of one year; each was capable of checking his colleague by veto . Most modern scholarship describes these accounts as the quasi-mythological detailing of an aristocratic coup within Tarquin's own family or
3620-431: A red leather ribbon into a cylinder, and while out of the city, with a blade on the side, projecting from the bundle. While the voters in this assembly wore white undecorated togas and were unarmed, they were still metaphorically soldiers, and as such they could not meet inside of the physical boundary of the city of Rome (the pomerium ). Because of this, as well as the large size of the assembly (as many as 373 centuries),
3801-458: A representative is uncertain. In ancient times, the sudden outbreaks of war prevented the census from being taken, because a large number of the citizens would necessarily be absent. It is supposed from a passage in Livy that in later times the censors sent commissioners into the provinces with full powers to take the census of the Roman soldiers there, but this seems to have been a special case. It is, on
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#17328582378593982-617: A separate property requirement: The first classes consisted of soldiers with heavy armor (see Triarii and Principes ), the lower classes had successively less armor (see Hastati and Velites ), and the soldiers of the fifth class had nothing more than slings and stones. Each of the five property classes were divided equally between centuries of younger soldiers and centuries of older soldiers. The first class of enlisted soldiers consisted of eighty centuries, classes two through four consisted of twenty centuries each, and class five consisted of thirty centuries. The unarmed soldiers were divided into
4163-637: A similar revolt in Sardinia to seize the island from Carthage, in violation of the peace treaty. This led to permanent bitterness in Carthage. After its victory, the Republic shifted its attention to its northern border as the Insubres and Boii were threatening Italy. Meanwhile, Carthage compensated the loss of Sicily and Sardinia with the conquest of Southern Hispania (up to Salamanca ), and its rich silver mines. This rapid expansion worried Rome, which concluded
4344-402: A similar three market-day interval to pass between the proposal of a law and the vote on that law. During criminal trials, the assembly's presiding magistrate had to give a notice ( diem dicere ) to the accused person on the first day of the investigation ( anquisito ). At the end of each day, the magistrate had to give another notice to the accused person ( diem prodicere ), which informed him of
4525-683: A stalemate, with the Treaty of Phoenice signed in 205. In Hispania, Scipio continued his successful campaign at the battles of Carmona in 207, and Ilipa (now Seville ) in 206, which ended the Punic threat on the peninsula. Elected consul in 205, he convinced the Senate to invade Africa with the support of the Numidian king Masinissa , who had defected to Rome. Scipio landed in Africa in 204. He took Utica and then won
4706-569: A third term in 121 but was defeated. During violent protests over repeal of an ally's colonisation bill, the Senate moved the first senatus consultum ultimum against him, resulting in his death, with many others, on the Aventine. His legislation (like that of his brother) survived; the Roman aristocracy disliked the Gracchan agitation but accepted their policies. Centuriate Assembly The Centuriate Assembly ( Latin : comitia centuriata ) of
4887-664: A treaty with Hasdrubal in 226, stating that Carthage could not cross the Ebro river . But the city of Saguntum , south of the Ebro, appealed to Rome in 220 to act as arbitrator during a period of internal strife . Hannibal took the city in 219, triggering the Second Punic War. Initially, the Republic's plan was to carry war outside Italy, sending the consuls P. Cornelius Scipio to Hispania and Ti. Sempronius Longus to Africa, while their naval superiority prevented Carthage from attacking from
5068-409: A voting century did not change over time, as property qualifications for membership in a military century did. Soldiers in the Roman army were classified on the basis of the amount of property that they owned, and as such, soldiers with more property outranked soldiers with less property. Since the wealthy soldiers were divided into more centuries in the early Roman army, with a greater military burden,
5249-480: Is the origin of the modern meaning of the words censor and censorship . The census was first instituted by Servius Tullius , sixth king of Rome , c. 575–535 BC. After the abolition of the monarchy and the founding of the Republic in 509 BC, the consuls had responsibility for the census until 443 BC. In 442 BC, no consuls were elected, but tribunes with consular power were appointed instead. This
5430-413: The aerarium , which was entirely under the jurisdiction of the Senate; and all disbursements were made by order of this body, which employed the quaestors as its officers. In one important department, the public works, the censors were entrusted with the expenditure of the public money (though the actual payments were no doubt made by the quaestors). The censors had the general superintendence of all
5611-485: The cognomen of Censorinus . The censorship differed from all other Roman magistracies in the length of office. The censors were originally chosen for a whole lustrum (a period of five years), but as early as ten years after its institution (433 BC) their office was limited to eighteen months by a law of Dictator Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus . The censors were also unique with respect to rank and dignity. They had no imperium , and accordingly no lictors . Their rank
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5792-410: The lex Ovinia transferred this power to the censors, who could only remove senators for misconduct, thus appointing them for life. This law strongly increased the power of the Senate, which was by now protected from the influence of the consuls and became the central organ of government. In 312 BC, following this law, the patrician censor Appius Claudius Caecus appointed many more senators to fill
5973-463: The Battle of the Great Plains , which prompted Carthage to open peace negotiations. The talks failed because Scipio wanted to impose harsher terms on Carthage to prevent it from rising again as a threat. Hannibal was therefore sent to face Scipio at Zama . Scipio could now use the heavy Numidian cavalry of Massinissa—which had hitherto been so successful against Rome—to rout the Punic wings, then flank
6154-727: The Convention ( conventio , literally "coming together") was an unofficial forum for communication. Conventions were simply forums where Romans met for specific unofficial purposes, such as, for example, to hear a political speech. Private citizens who did not hold political office could only speak before a Convention, and not before a Committee or a Council. Conventions were simply meetings, and no legal or legislative decisions could be made in one. Voters always assembled first into Conventions to hear debates and conduct other business before voting, and then into Committees or Councils to actually vote. A notice always had to be given several days before
6335-572: The Roman Republic was one of the three voting assemblies in the Roman constitution . It was named the Centuriate Assembly as it originally divided Roman citizens into groups of one hundred men by classes. The centuries initially reflected military status, but were later based on the wealth of their members. The centuries gathered into the Centuriate Assembly for legislative, electoral, and judicial purposes. The majority of votes in any century decided how that century voted. Each century received one vote, regardless of how many electors each Century held. Once
6516-638: The Seleucid Empire made increasingly aggressive and successful attempts to conquer the entire Greek world. Now not only Rome's allies against Philip, but even Philip himself, sought a Roman alliance against the Seleucids. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Hannibal was now a chief military advisor to the Seleucid emperor, and the two were believed to be planning outright conquest not just of Greece, but also of Rome. The Seleucids were much stronger than
6697-794: The Seleucid Empire , the Lusitanian Viriathus , the Numidian Jugurtha , the Pontic king Mithridates VI , Vercingetorix of the Arverni tribe of Gaul , and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra . At home, during the Conflict of the Orders , the patricians , the closed oligarchic elite, came into conflict with the more numerous plebs ; this was resolved peacefully, with the plebs achieving political equality by
6878-538: The Seleucid Empire . In 202, internal problems led to a weakening of Egypt's position, disrupting the power balance among the successor states. Macedonia and the Seleucid Empire agreed to an alliance to conquer and divide Egypt. Fearing this increasingly unstable situation, several small Greek kingdoms sent delegations to Rome to seek an alliance. Rome gave Philip an ultimatum to cease his campaigns against Rome's new Greek allies. Doubting Rome's strength, Philip ignored
7059-535: The War of Actium . During this period, Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world . Roman society at the time was primarily a cultural mix of Latin and Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Ancient Roman religion and its pantheon . Its political organization developed at around
7240-523: The patricians in Rome. The magistracy continued to be controlled by patricians until 351 BC, when Gaius Marcius Rutilus was appointed the first plebeian censor. Twelve years later, in 339 BC, one of the Publilian laws required that one censor had to be a plebeian. Despite this, no plebeian censor performed the solemn purification of the people (the lustrum ; Livy Periochae 13) until 280 BC. In 131 BC, for
7421-594: The plebs elected tribunes , who were personally sacrosanct, immune to arbitrary arrest by any magistrate, and had veto power over legislation. By 390 BC, several Gallic tribes were invading Italy from the north. The Romans met the Gauls in pitched battle at the Battle of Allia River around 390–387 BC. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia rivers, 11 Roman miles (10 mi or 16 km) north of Rome. The Romans were routed and subsequently Rome
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7602-574: The 4th century BC. The late Republic, from 133 BC onward, saw substantial domestic strife , often anachronistically seen as a conflict between optimates and populares , referring to conservative and reformist politicians, respectively. The Social War between Rome and its Italian allies over citizenship and Roman hegemony in Italy greatly expanded the scope of civil violence. Mass slavery also contributed to three Servile Wars . Tensions at home coupled with ambitions abroad led to further civil wars . The first involved Marius and Sulla . After
7783-456: The Boii ambushed the army of the consul-elect for 215, L. Postumius Albinus , who died with all his army of 25,000 men in the Battle of Silva Litana . These disasters triggered a wave of defection among Roman allies, with the rebellions of the Samnites, Oscans, Lucanians, and Greek cities of Southern Italy. In Macedonia, Philip V also made an alliance with Hannibal in order to take Illyria and
7964-518: The Macedonians had ever been, because they controlled much of the former Persian Empire and had almost entirely reassembled Alexander the Great's former empire. Fearing the worst, the Romans began a major mobilization, all but pulling out of recently conquered Spain and Gaul. This fear was shared by Rome's Greek allies, who now followed Rome again for the first time since that war. A major Roman-Greek force
8145-451: The Punic army—and confronted Hannibal, who was encamped at Cannae , in Apulia . Despite his numerical disadvantage, Hannibal used his heavier cavalry to rout the Roman wings and envelop their infantry, which he annihilated. In terms of casualties, the Battle of Cannae was the worst defeat in Roman history: only 14,500 soldiers escaped, and Paullus was killed as well as 80 senators. Soon after,
8326-690: The Rhone, sent his elder brother Gnaeus with the main part of his army in Hispania according to the initial plan, and went back to Italy with the rest to resist Hannibal in Italy, but he was defeated and wounded near the Ticino river . Hannibal then marched south and won three outstanding victories. The first one was on the banks of the Trebia in December 218, where he defeated the other consul Ti. Sempronius Longus. More than half
8507-425: The Roman army was lost. Hannibal then ravaged the country around Arretium to lure the new consul C. Flaminius into a trap at Lake Trasimene . This clever ambush resulted in the death of the consul and the complete destruction of his army of 30,000 men. In 216, the new consuls L. Aemilius Paullus and C. Terentius Varro mustered the biggest army possible, with eight legions—some 80,000 soldiers, twice as many as
8688-407: The Romans concluded a peace in the north and moved south with reinforcements, placing Pyrrhus in danger of being flanked by two consular armies; Pyrrhus withdrew to Tarentum. In 279 BC, Pyrrhus met the consuls Publius Decius Mus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio at the Battle of Asculum , which remained undecided for two days. Finally, Pyrrhus personally charged into the melee and won the battle but at
8869-415: The Romans' inability to conceive of plausible alternatives to the traditional republican system in a "crisis without alternative". The second instead stresses the continuity of the republic: until its disruption by Caesar's civil war and the following two decades of civil war created conditions for autocratic rule and made return to republican politics impossible: and, per Erich S. Gruen , "civil war caused
9050-573: The Senate's grant of extraordinary powers to Octavian as Augustus in 27 BC—which effectively made him the first Roman emperor —marked the end of the Republic. Rome had been ruled by monarchs since its foundation . These monarchs were elected, for life, by the men of the Roman Senate . The last Roman monarch was called Tarquin the Proud , who in traditional histories was expelled from Rome in 509 BC because his son, Sextus Tarquinius , raped
9231-597: The Servian organization, the assembly was so aristocratic that the officer class and the first class of enlisted soldiers controlled enough centuries for an outright majority. Some time between 241 and 216 BC the centuries were reapportioned. Under the old system, there were a total of 193 centuries, while under the new system, there were a total of 373 centuries. Under the new system, the thirty-five Tribes were each divided into ten centuries: five of older soldiers, and five of younger soldiers. Of each of these five centuries, one
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#17328582378599412-588: The Spartan general marched on Regulus, crushing the Roman infantry on the Bagradas plain ; only 2,000 soldiers escaped, and Regulus was captured. The consuls for 255 nonetheless won a naval victory at Cape Hermaeum, where they captured 114 warships. This success was spoilt by a storm that annihilated the victorious navy: 184 ships of 264 sank, 25,000 soldiers and 75,000 rowers drowned. The corvus considerably hindered ships' navigation and made them vulnerable during tempest. It
9593-680: The affair was insulted and war was promptly declared. Facing a hopeless situation, the Tarentines (together with the Lucanians and Samnites) appealed to Pyrrhus , king of Epirus , for military aid. A cousin of Alexander the Great , he was eager to build an empire for himself in the western Mediterranean and saw Tarentum's plea as a perfect opportunity. Pyrrhus and his army of 25,500 men (with 20 war elephants) landed in Italy in 280 BC. The Romans were defeated at Heraclea , as their cavalry were afraid of Pyrrhus's elephants. Pyrrhus then marched on Rome, but
9774-519: The aftermath of the Social War. In the winter of 138–137 BC, a first slave uprising, known as the First Servile War , broke out in Sicily. After initial successes, the slaves led by Eunus and Cleon were defeated by Marcus Perperna and Publius Rupilius in 132 BC. In this context, Tiberius Gracchus was elected plebeian tribune in 133 BC. He attempted to enact a law to limit
9955-423: The agreement when Philip's emissaries were captured by a Roman fleet. The First Macedonian War saw the Romans involved directly in only limited land operations, but they achieved their objective of occupying Philip and preventing him from aiding Hannibal. The past century had seen the Greek world dominated by the three primary successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great 's empire: Ptolemaic Egypt , Macedonia and
10136-485: The amount of land anyone could own and establish a commission to distribute public lands to poor rural plebs. The aristocrats, who stood to lose an enormous amount of money, bitterly opposed this proposal. Tiberius submitted this law to the Plebeian Council , but it was vetoed by fellow tribune Marcus Octavius . Tiberius induced the plebs to depose Octavius from his office on the grounds that Octavius acted contrary to
10317-614: The area around Epidamnus , occupied by Rome. His attack on Apollonia started the First Macedonian War . In 215, Hiero II of Syracuse died of old age, and his young grandson Hieronymus broke the long alliance with Rome to side with Carthage. At this desperate point, the aggressive strategy against Hannibal the Scipiones advocated was abandoned in favour of a slow reconquest of the lost territories, since Hannibal could not be everywhere to defend them. Although he remained invincible on
10498-467: The assembly often met on the Field of Mars (Latin: Campus Martius ), which was a large field located right outside of the city wall. The president of the Centuriate Assembly was usually a Consul (although sometimes a Praetor). Only Consuls (the highest-ranking of all Roman Magistrates) could preside over the Centuriate Assembly during elections because the higher-ranking Consuls were always elected together with
10679-408: The assembly was to actually vote. For elections, at least three market-days (often more than seventeen actual days) had to pass between the announcement of the election, and the actual election. During this time period (the trinundinum ), the candidates interacted with the electorate, and no legislation could be proposed or voted upon. In 98 BC, a law was passed (the lex Caecilia Didia ) which required
10860-476: The auspices correctly; the consuls were forced to resign and new elections were organised. On the day of the vote, the electors first assembled into their Conventions for debate and campaigning. In the Conventions, the electors were not sorted into their respective centuries. Speeches from private citizens were only heard if the issue to be voted upon was a legislative or judicial matter, and even then, only if
11041-455: The backbone of Rome's economy, as smallholding farmers, managers, artisans, traders, and tenants. In wartime, they could be summoned for military service. Most had little direct political influence. During the early Republic, the plebs (or plebeians) emerged as a self-organised, culturally distinct group of commoners, with its own internal hierarchy, laws, customs, and interests. Plebeians had no access to high religious and civil office. For
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#173285823785911222-408: The battlefield, defeating all the Roman armies on his way, he could not prevent Claudius Marcellus from taking Syracuse in 212 after a long siege , nor the fall of his bases of Capua and Tarentum in 211 and 209 . In Hispania, Publius and Gnaeus Scipio won the battles of Cissa in 218, soon after Hannibal's departure, and Dertosa against his brother Hasdrubal in 215, which enabled them to conquer
11403-480: The behavior of the people; they are not to overlook abuse in the Senate." The Census, the first and principal duty of the censors, was always held in the Campus Martius , and from the year 435 BC onwards, in a special building called Villa publica , which was erected for that purpose by the second pair of censors, Gaius Furius Pacilus Fusus and Marcus Geganius Macerinus . An account of the formalities with which
11584-573: The censors died, his colleague resigned, and two new censors were chosen to replace them. The office of censor was limited to eighteen months by a law proposed by the dictator Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus . During the censorship of Appius Claudius Caecus (312–308 BC) the prestige of the censorship massively increased. Caecus built the first-ever Roman road (the Via Appia ) and the first Roman aqueduct (the Aqua Appia ), both named after him. He changed
11765-513: The censors had performed their various duties and taken the five-yearly census, the lustrum , a solemn purification of the people, followed. When the censors entered upon their office, they drew lots to see which of them should perform this purification; but both censors were of course obliged to be present at the ceremony. Long after the Roman census was no longer taken, the Latin word lustrum has survived, and been adopted in some modern languages, in
11946-515: The censors possessed the power of setting a higher valuation on the property than the citizens themselves gave, but given the discretionary nature of the censors' powers, and the necessity almost that existed, in order to prevent fraud, that the right of making a surcharge should be vested in somebody's hands, it is likely that the censors had this power. It is moreover expressly stated that on one occasion they made an extravagant surcharge on articles of luxury; and even if they did not enter in their books
12127-428: The censors, who were seated in their curule chairs , and those names were taken first which were considered to be of good omen, such as Valerius , Salvius , Statorius , etc. The Census was conducted according to the judgement of the censor ( ad arbitrium censoris ), but the censors laid down certain rules, sometimes called leges censui censendo , in which mention was made of the different kinds of property subject to
12308-436: The censorship had been done away with by Sulla, it was at any rate restored in the consulship of Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus . Its power was limited by one of the laws of the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher (58 BC), which prescribed certain regular forms of proceeding before the censors in expelling a person from the Roman Senate , and required that the censors be in agreement to exact this punishment. This law, however,
12489-406: The censorship obtained was due to the various important duties gradually entrusted to it, and especially to its possessing the regimen morum , or general control over the conduct and the morals of the citizens. In the exercise of this power, they were regulated solely by their own views of duty, and were not responsible to any other power in the state. The censors possessed the official stool called
12670-426: The censorship of Appius Claudius Caecus , one of the most influential censors. The aediles had likewise a superintendence over the public buildings, and it is not easy to define with accuracy the respective duties of the censors and aediles, but it may be remarked in general that the superintendence of the aediles had more of a police character, while that of the censors were more financial in subject matter. After
12851-697: The censorship was at first of a much more limited kind, and was restricted almost entirely to taking the census, but the possession of this power gradually brought with it fresh power and new duties, as is shown below. A general view of these duties is briefly expressed in the following passage of Cicero: " Censores populi aevitates, soboles, familias pecuniasque censento: urbis templa, vias, aquas, aerarium, vectigalia tuento: populique partes in tribus distribunto: exin pecunias, aevitates, ordines patiunto: equitum, peditumque prolem describunto: caelibes esse prohibento: mores populi regunto: probrum in senatu ne relinquunto. " This can be translated as: "The Censors are to determine
13032-504: The census was considered incensus and subject to the severest punishment. Servius Tullius is said to have threatened such individuals with imprisonment and death, and in the Republican period he might be sold by the state as a slave. In the later period of the Republic, a person who was absent from the census might be represented by another, and be thus registered by the censors. Whether the soldiers who were absent on service had to appoint
13213-479: The census was opened is given in a fragment of the Tabulae Censoriae , preserved by Varro. After the auspices had been taken, the citizens were summoned by a public crier to appear before the censors. Each tribe was called up separately, and the names in each tribe were probably taken according to the lists previously made out by the tribunes of the tribes. Every pater familias had to appear in person before
13394-499: The census was still taken under the Empire, but the old ceremonies connected with it were no longer performed, and the ceremony of the lustratio was not performed after the time of Vespasian . The jurists Paulus and Ulpian each wrote works on the census in the imperial period; and several extracts from these works are given in a chapter in the Digest (50 15). The word census , besides
13575-464: The census was the same thing as "having a head" ( caput habere ). A census was sometimes taken in the provinces, even under the Republic. The emperor sent into the provinces special officers called censitores to take the census; but the duty was sometimes discharged by the Imperial legati . The censitores were assisted by subordinate officers, called censuales , who made out the lists, etc. In Rome,
13756-423: The census, and in what way their value was to be estimated. According to these laws, each citizen had to give an account of himself, of his family, and of his property upon oath, "declared from the heart". First he had to give his full name ( praenomen , nomen , and cognomen ) and that of his father, or if he were a libertus ("freedman") that of his patron , and he was likewise obliged to state his age. He
13937-497: The citizen received permission from the presiding magistrate. If the purpose of the ultimate vote was for an election, no speeches from private citizens were heard, and instead, the candidates for office used the convention to campaign. During the convention, the bill to be voted upon was read to the assembly by an officer known as a "Herald". A tribune of the plebs could use his veto against pending legislation up until this point, but not after. The electors were then told to break up
14118-469: The classes and centuries; for by the legislation of Servius Tullius the position of each citizen in the state was determined by the amount of his property ( Comitia Centuriata ). These lists formed a most important part of the Tabulae Censoriae , under which name were included all the documents connected in any way with the discharge of the censors' duties. These lists, insofar as they were connected with
14299-409: The conservators of public morality; they were not simply to prevent crime or particular acts of immorality, but rather to maintain the traditional Roman character, ethics, and habits ( mos majorum )— regimen morum also encompassed this protection of traditional ways, which was called in the times of the Empire cura ("supervision") or praefectura ("command"). The punishment inflicted by the censors in
14480-687: The consul Appius Claudius Caudex , turned to one of the popular assemblies to get a favourable vote by promising plunder to the voters. After the assembly ratified an alliance with the Mamertines, Caudex was dispatched to cross the strait and lend aid. Messina fell under Roman control quickly. Syracuse and Carthage, at war for centuries, responded with an alliance to counter the invasion and blockaded Messina, but Caudex defeated Hiero and Carthage separately. His successor, Manius Valerius Maximus , landed with an army of 40,000 men and conquered eastern Sicily, which prompted Hiero to shift his allegiance and forge
14661-548: The contract were called conductores , mancipes , redemptores , susceptores , etc., and the duties they had to discharge were specified in the Leges Censoriae . The censors had also to superintend the expenses connected with the worship of the gods, even for instance the feeding of the sacred geese in the Capitol; these various tasks were also let out on contract. It was ordinary for censors to expend large amounts of money (“by far
14842-414: The contrary, probable from the way in which Cicero pleads the absence of Archias from Rome with the army under Lucullus , as a sufficient reason for his not having been enrolled in the census, that service in the army was a valid excuse for absence. After the censors had received the names of all the citizens with the amount of their property, they then had to make out the lists of the tribes, and also of
15023-491: The convention ("depart to your separate groups", or discedite, quirites ), and assemble into their formal century. The electors assembled behind a fenced off area and voted by placing a pebble or written ballot into an appropriate jar. The baskets ( cistae ) that held the votes were watched by specific officers (the custodes ), who then counted the ballots, and reported the results to the presiding magistrate. The majority of votes in any century decided how that century voted. If
15204-496: The conventional meaning of "valuation" of a person's estate, has other meaning in Rome; it could refer to: Keeping the public morals ( regimen morum , or in the Empire cura morum or praefectura morum ) was the second most important branch of the censors' duties, and the one which caused their office to be one of the most revered and the most dreaded; hence they were also known as castigatores ("chastisers"). It naturally grew out of
15385-452: The cost of an important part of his troops ; he allegedly said, "if we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." He escaped the Italian deadlock by answering a call for help from Syracuse, where tyrant Thoenon was desperately fighting an invasion from Carthage . Pyrrhus could not let them take the whole island, as it would have compromised his ambitions in
15566-599: The creation of promagistracies to rule its conquered provinces , and differences in the composition of the senate. Unlike the Pax Romana of the Roman Empire, throughout the republican era Rome was in a state of near-perpetual war. Its first enemies were its Latin and Etruscan neighbours, as well as the Gauls , who sacked Rome in 387 BC. After the Gallic sack, Rome conquered
15747-568: The departure of the Epirote king. Between 288 and 283 BC, Messina in Sicily was taken by the Mamertines , a band of mercenaries formerly employed by Agathocles . They plundered the surroundings until Hiero II , the new tyrant of Syracuse , defeated them (in either 269 or 265 BC). In effect under a Carthaginian protectorate, the remaining Mamertines appealed to Rome to regain their independence. Senators were divided on whether to help. A supporter of war,
15928-519: The derived sense of a period of five years, i.e., half a decennium. Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( Latin : Res publica Romana [ˈreːs ˈpuːblɪka roːˈmaːna] ) was the era of classical Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire following
16109-432: The dictator Camillus , who made a compromise with the tribunes: he agreed to their bills, and they in return consented to the creation of the offices of praetor and curule aediles, both reserved to patricians. Lateranus became the first plebeian consul in 366 BC; Stolo followed in 361 BC. Soon after, plebeians were able to hold both the dictatorship and the censorship. The four-time consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus became
16290-633: The dominant force in politics and society. They initially formed a closed group of about 50 large families, called gentes , who monopolised Rome's magistracies, state priesthoods, and senior military posts. The most prominent of these families were the Cornelii , Aemilii , Claudii , Fabii , and Valerii . The leading families' power, privilege and influence derived from their wealth, in particular from their landholdings, their position as patrons , and their numerous clients. The vast majority of Roman citizens were commoners of various social degrees. They formed
16471-609: The eastern coast of Hispania. But in 211, Hasdrubal and Mago Barca successfully turned the Celtiberian tribes that supported the Scipiones, and attacked them simultaneously at the Battle of the Upper Baetis , in which the Scipiones died. Publius's son, the future Scipio Africanus , was then elected with a special proconsulship to lead the Hispanic campaign, winning a series of battles with ingenious tactics. In 209, he took Carthago Nova ,
16652-451: The economic difficulties of the plebs for their own gain: Stolo, Lateranus, and Genucius bound their bills attacking patricians' political supremacy with debt-relief measures. As a result of the end of the patrician monopoly on senior magistracies, many small patrician gentes faded into history during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC due to the lack of available positions. About a dozen remaining patrician gentes and 20 plebeian ones thus formed
16833-503: The election of the consuls and praetors , so the censors were not regarded as their colleagues, although they likewise possessed the maxima auspicia . The assembly was held by the new consuls shortly after they began their term of office; and the censors, as soon as they were elected and the censorial power had been granted to them by a decree of the Centuriate Assembly ( lex centuriata ), were fully installed in their office. As
17014-452: The end of the war, the consuls for 256 BC decided to carry the operations to Africa, on Carthage's homeland. The consul Marcus Atilius Regulus landed on the Cap Bon peninsula with about 18,000 soldiers. He captured the city of Aspis , repulsed Carthage's counterattack at Adys , and took Tunis . The Carthaginians hired Spartan mercenaries, led by Xanthippus , to command their troops. In 255,
17195-416: The ensuing five years, or until new censors were appointed, striking out the names of such as they considered unworthy, and making additions to the body from those who were qualified. In the same manner they held a review of the equites who received a horse from public funds ( equites equo publico ), and added and removed names as they judged proper. They also confirmed the princeps senatus , or appointed
17376-455: The era). The censorate was thus highly prestigious, preceding all other regular magistracies in dignity if not in power and reserved with rare exceptions for former consuls . Attaining the censorship would thus be considered the crowning achievement of a Roman politician on the cursus honorum . However, the magistracy as a regular office did not survive the transition from the Republic to the Empire . The censor's regulation of public morality
17557-403: The exercise of this branch of their duties was called nota ("mark, letter") or notatio , or animadversio censoria ("censorial reproach"). In inflicting it, they were guided only by their conscientious convictions of duty; they had to take an oath that they would act biased by neither partiality nor favour; and, in addition to this, they were bound in every case to state in their lists, opposite
17738-518: The fall of the republic, not vice versa". A core cause of the Republic's eventual demise was the loss of elite's cohesion from c. 133 BC : the ancient sources called this moral decay from wealth and the hubris of Rome's domination of the Mediterranean. Modern sources have proposed multiple reasons why the elite lost cohesion, including wealth inequality and a growing willingness by aristocrats to transgress political norms, especially in
17919-436: The final five centuries: four of these centuries were composed of artisans and musicians (such as trumpeters and horn blowers), while the fifth century (the proletarii ) consisted of people with little or no property. During a vote, all of the centuries of one class had to vote before the centuries of the next lower class could vote. The seven classes voted in a specific order: The first enlisted class voted first, followed by
18100-618: The finances of the state, were deposited in the aerarium , located in the Temple of Saturn ; but the regular depository for all the archives of the censors was in earlier times the Atrium Libertatis , near the Villa publica, and in later times the temple of the Nymphs. Besides the division of the citizens into tribes, centuries, and classes, the censors had also to make out the lists of the senators for
18281-421: The first plebeian dictator in 356 BC and censor in 351 BC. In 342 BC, the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius passed his leges Genuciae , which abolished interest on loans, in a renewed effort to tackle indebtedness; required the election of at least one plebeian consul each year; and prohibited magistrates from holding the same magistracy for the next ten years or two magistracies in the same year. In 339 BC,
18462-471: The first time a Roman army had ever entered Asia . The decisive engagement was fought at the Battle of Magnesia , resulting in complete Roman victory. The Seleucids sued for peace, and Rome forced them to give up their recent Greek conquests. Rome again withdrew from Greece, assuming (or hoping) that the lack of a major Greek power would ensure a stable peace. In fact, it did the opposite. In 179, Philip died. His talented and ambitious son, Perseus , took
18643-477: The first time, both censors were plebeians. The reason for having two censors was that the two consuls had previously taken the census together. If one of the censors died during his term of office, another was chosen to replace him, just as with consuls. This happened only once, in 393 BC. However, the Gauls captured Rome in that lustrum (five-year period), and the Romans thereafter regarded such replacement as "an offense against religion". From then on, if one of
18824-406: The four patricians in the college. The Conflict of the Orders ended with the last secession of the plebs around 287. The dictator Quintus Hortensius passed the lex Hortensia , which reenacted the law of 339 BC, making plebiscites binding on all citizens, while also removing the requirement for prior Senate approval. These events were a political victory of the wealthy plebeian elite, who exploited
19005-410: The generations, origins, families, and properties of the people; they are to (watch over/protect) the city's temples, roads, waters, treasury, and taxes; they are to divide the people into three parts; next, they are to (allow/approve) the properties, generations, and ranks [of the people]; they are to describe the offspring of knights and footsoldiers; they are to forbid being unmarried; they are to guide
19186-572: The growing unrest he had caused led to his trial for seeking kingly power; he was sentenced to death and thrown from the Tarpeian Rock . Between 376 BC and 367 BC, the tribunes of the plebs Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus continued the plebeian agitation and pushed for an ambitious legislation, known as the Leges Liciniae Sextiae . The most important bill opened the consulship to plebeians. Other tribunes controlled by
19367-655: The highest political statuses in the Roman Republic, second only to that of the consuls. The censors were elected in the Centuriate Assembly , which met under the presidency of a consul. Barthold Niebuhr suggests that the censors were at first elected by the Curiate Assembly , and that the Assembly's selections were confirmed by the Centuriate, but William Smith believes that "there is no authority for this supposition, and
19548-526: The infantry, as Hannibal had done at Cannae. Defeated for the first time, Hannibal convinced the Carthaginian Senate to pay the war indemnity, which was even harsher than that of 241: 10,000 talents in 50 instalments. Carthage also had to give up all its elephants, all its fleet but ten triremes , and all its possessions outside its core territory in Africa (what is now Tunisia ), and it could not declare war without Roman authorisation. In effect, Carthage
19729-447: The jurisdiction of the censors. They also had the superintendence of all the other revenues of the state, the vectigalia , such as the tithes paid for the public lands, the salt works, the mines, the customs, etc. The censors typically auctioned off to the highest bidder for the space of a lustrum the collection of the tithes and taxes ( tax farming ). This auctioning was called venditio or locatio , and seems to have taken place in
19910-411: The land belonging to the state. It would thus appear that it was the duty of the censors to bring forward a budget for a five-year period, and to take care that the income of the state was sufficient for its expenditure during that time. In part, their duties resembled those of a modern minister of finance . The censors, however, did not receive the revenues of the state. All the public money was paid into
20091-498: The largest and most extensive” of the state) in their public works. Besides keeping existing public buildings and facilities in a proper state of repair, the censors were also in charge of constructing new ones, either for ornament or utility, both in Rome and in other parts of Italy, such as temples, basilicae , theatres , porticoes , fora , aqueducts , town walls , harbours, bridges, cloacae, roads, etc. These works were either performed by them jointly, or they divided between them
20272-500: The league's surrender. Rome decided to divide Macedonia into two new, directly administered Roman provinces, Achaea and Macedonia . For Carthage, the Third Punic War was a simple punitive mission after the neighbouring Numidians allied to Rome robbed and attacked Carthaginian merchants. Treaties had forbidden any war with Roman allies; viewing defence against banditry as "war action", Rome decided to annihilate Carthage. Carthage
20453-525: The lower-ranking Praetors. Consuls and Praetors were usually elected in July, and took office in January. Two Consuls, and at least six Praetors, were elected each year for an annual term that began in January and ended in December. In contrast, two Censors were elected every five years on average. Once every five years, after the new Consuls for the year took office, they presided over the Centuriate Assembly as it elected
20634-521: The main Punic base in Hispania. The next year, he defeated Hasdrubal at the Battle of Baecula . After his defeat, Carthage ordered Hasdrubal to reinforce his brother in Italy. Since he could not use ships, he followed the same route as his brother through the Alps, but the consuls M. Livius Salinator and C. Claudius Nero were awaiting him and defeated him in the Battle of the Metaurus , where Hasdrubal died. It
20815-477: The manifest will of the people, a position that was unprecedented and constitutionally dubious. His law was enacted and took effect, but, when Tiberius ostentatiously stood for reelection to the tribunate, he was murdered by his enemies. Tiberius's brother Gaius was elected tribune ten years later in 123 and reelected for 122. He induced the plebs to reinforce rights of appeal to the people against capital extrajudicial punishments and institute reforms to improve
20996-592: The miscellaneous class (mostly unarmed adjuncts). The officer class was grouped into eighteen centuries, six of which (the sex suffragia ) were composed exclusively of Patricians . The enlisted class was grouped into 170 centuries. Most enlisted individuals (those aged seventeen to forty-six) were grouped into eighty-five centuries of "junior soldiers" ( iuniores or "young men"). The relatively limited number of enlisted soldiers who were aged forty-six to sixty were grouped into eighty-five centuries of "senior soldiers" ( seniores or "old men"). The result of this arrangement
21177-420: The money, which had been granted to them by the Senate. They were let out to contractors, like the other works mentioned above, and when they were completed, the censors had to see that the work was performed in accordance with the contract: this was called opus probare or in acceptum referre . The first ever Roman road, the Via Appia , and the first Roman aqueduct, the Aqua Appia , were all constructed under
21358-487: The month of March, in a public place in Rome The terms on which they were let, together with the rights and duties of the purchasers, were all specified in the leges censoriae , which the censors published in every case before the bidding commenced. For further particulars see Publicani . The censors also possessed the right, though probably not without the assent of the Senate, of imposing new vectigalia , and even of selling
21539-470: The most important article of the census, but public land, the possession of which only belonged to a citizen, was excluded as not being Quiritarian property. Judging from the practice of the imperial period, it was the custom to give a most minute specification of all such land as a citizen held according to the Quiritarian law. He had to state the name and location of the land, and to specify what portion of it
21720-472: The most important cities in the Roman Empire. Views on the structural causes of the Republic's collapse differ. One enduring thesis is that Rome's expansion destabilized its social organization between conflicting interests; the Senate's policymaking, blinded by its own short-term self-interest, alienated large portions of society, who then joined powerful generals who sought to overthrow the system. Two other theses have challenged this view. The first blames
21901-411: The name of the guilty citizen, the cause of the punishment inflicted on him, subscriptio censoria . This part of the censors' office invested them with a peculiar kind of jurisdiction, which in many respects resembled the exercise of public opinion in modern times; for there are innumerable actions which, though acknowledged by everyone to be prejudicial and immoral, still do not come within the reach of
22082-553: The new limit of 300, including descendants of freedmen, which was deemed scandalous. Caecus also launched a vast construction program, building the first aqueduct , the Aqua Appia , and the first Roman road, the Via Appia . In 300 BC, the two tribunes of the plebs Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius passed the lex Ogulnia , which created four plebeian pontiffs, equalling the number of patrician pontiffs, and five plebeian augurs, outnumbering
22263-479: The occupation of private persons, and that the aqueducts , roads , drains, etc. were properly attended to. The repairs of the public works and the keeping of them in proper condition were let out by the censors by public auction to the lowest bidder, just as the vectigalia were let out to the highest bidder. These expenses were called ultrotributa , and hence we frequently find vectigalia and ultrotributa contrasted with one another. The persons who undertook
22444-441: The offences which are recorded to have been punished by the censors are of a threefold nature. A person who had been branded with a nota censoria , might, if he considered himself wronged, endeavour to prove his innocence to the censors, and if he did not succeed, he might try to gain the protection of one of the censors, that he might intercede on his behalf. The punishments inflicted by the censors generally differed according to
22625-441: The office was abolished by Lucius Cornelius Sulla . Although the authority on which this statement rests is not of much weight, the fact itself is probable, since there was no census during the two lustra which elapsed from Sulla's dictatorship to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey) 's first consulship (82–70 BC), and any strict "imposition of morals" would have been found inconvenient to the aristocracy that supported Sulla. If
22806-435: The office. This was the last time that such magistrates were appointed; the emperors in future discharged the duties of their office under the name of Praefectura Morum ("prefect of the morals"). Some of the emperors sometimes took the name of censor when they held a census of the Roman people; this was the case with Claudius , who appointed the elder Lucius Vitellius as his colleague, and with Vespasian , who likewise had
22987-425: The officer class (with the six patrician equestrian centuries voting first among them), then the second enlisted class, then the third enlisted class, then the fourth enlisted class, then the fifth enlisted class, and then finally the unarmed centuries. When a measure received a simple majority of the vote, the voting ended, and as such, many lower ranking centuries rarely if ever had a chance to actually vote. Under
23168-590: The old Servian organization to this assembly. This reform was one in a slate of constitutional reforms enacted by Sulla as a consequence of the recent Civil War between his supporters and those of the former Consul Gaius Marius . His reforms were intended to reassert aristocratic control over the constitution, and thus prevent the emergence of another Marius. Sulla died in 78 BC, and in 70 BC, the Consuls Pompey Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus repealed Sulla's constitutional reforms, including his restoration of
23349-415: The old kingdom. The Romans swiftly defeated the Macedonians at the second battle of Pydna . The Achaean League , seeing the direction of Roman policy trending towards direct administration, met at Corinth and declared war "nominally against Sparta but in reality, against Rome". It was swiftly defeated: in 146, the same year as the destruction of Carthage , Corinth was besieged and destroyed , forcing
23530-542: The organisation of the Roman tribes and was the first censor to draw the list of senators . He also advocated the founding of Roman coloniae throughout Latium and Campania to support the Roman war effort in the Second Samnite War . With these efforts and reforms, Appius Claudius Caecus was able to hold the censorship for a whole lustrum (five-year period), and the office of censor, subsequently entrusted with various important duties, eventually attained one of
23711-462: The patricians vetoed the bills, but Stolo and Lateranus retaliated by vetoing the elections for five years while being continuously reelected by the plebs, resulting in a stalemate. In 367 BC, they carried a bill creating the Decemviri sacris faciundis , a college of ten priests, of whom five had to be plebeians, thereby breaking patricians' monopoly on priesthoods. The resolution of the crisis came from
23892-485: The people's welfare. While ancient sources tend to "conceive Gracchus' legislation as an elaborate plot against the authority of the Senate... he showed no sign of wanting to replace the Senate in its normal functions". Amid wide-ranging and popular reforms to create grain subsidies, change jury pools, establish and require the Senate to assign provinces before elections, Gaius proposed a law that would grant citizenship rights to Rome's Italian allies. He stood for election to
24073-524: The persistent Sabines and the local cities. Rome defeated its rival Latin cities in the Battle of Lake Regillus in 496 BC, the Battle of Ariccia in 495 BC, the Battle of Mount Algidus in 458 BC, and the Battle of Corbio in 446 BC. But it suffered a significant defeat at the Battle of the Cremera in 477 BC, wherein it fought against the most important Etruscan city, Veii ; this defeat
24254-493: The plebeian consul and dictator Quintus Publilius Philo passed three laws extending the plebeians' powers. His first law followed the lex Genucia by reserving one censorship to plebeians, the second made plebiscites binding on all citizens (including patricians), and the third required the Senate to give its prior approval to plebiscites before they became binding on all citizens. During the early Republic, consuls chose senators from among their supporters. Shortly before 312 BC,
24435-445: The poorest, one of the few effective political tools was their withdrawal of labour and services, in a " secessio plebis "; the first such secession occurred in 494 BC, in protest at the abusive treatment of plebeian debtors by the wealthy during a famine. The patrician Senate was compelled to give them direct access to the written civil and religious laws and to the electoral and political process. To represent their interests,
24616-418: The positive laws of a country; as often said, "immorality does not equal illegality". Even in cases of real crimes, the positive laws frequently punish only the particular offence, while in public opinion the offender, even after he has undergone punishment, is still incapacitated for certain honours and distinctions which are granted only to persons of unblemished character. Hence, the Roman censors might brand
24797-482: The presiding magistrate's power over the assembly was nearly absolute. The only check on that power came in the form of vetoes handed down by other magistrates. Any decision made by a presiding magistrate could be vetoed by a tribune of the plebs , or by a higher-ranked magistrate (for example, a consul could veto a praetor). In the Roman system of direct democracy , two primary types of assembly were used to vote on legislative, electoral, and judicial matters. The first
24978-432: The process was not complete by nightfall, the electors were dismissed without having reached a decision, and the process had to begin again the next day. The presiding magistrate sat on a special chair (the " curule chair "), wore a purple-bordered toga , and was accompanied by bodyguards called lictors . Each lictor carried the symbol of state power, the fasces , which was a bundle of white birch rods, tied together with
25159-410: The property of a person at a higher value than he returned it, they accomplished the same end by compelling him to pay a tax upon the property at a higher rate than others. The tax was usually one per thousand upon the property entered in the books of the censors, but on one occasion the censors compelled a person to pay eight per thousand as a punishment. A person who voluntarily absented himself from
25340-431: The public buildings and works ( opera publica ), and to meet the expenses connected with this part of their duties, the Senate voted them a certain sum of money or certain revenues, 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 buildings were in a good state of repair, that no public places were encroached upon by
25521-445: The publication of material judged to be contrary to "public morality" as the term is interpreted in a given political and social environment. The administration of the state's finances was another part of the censors' office. In the first place the tributum , or property-tax, had to be paid by each citizen according to the amount of his property registered in the census, and, accordingly, the regulation of this tax naturally fell under
25702-534: The redesign. Now, majorities usually could not be reached until the third class of enlisted centuries had begun voting. Since the lowest ranking century in the Centuriate Assembly, the fifth unarmed century (the proletarii ), was always the last century to vote, it never had any real influence on elections, and as such, it was so poorly regarded that it was all but ignored during the Census. During his dictatorship from 82 BC until 80 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla restored
25883-546: The request, and Rome sent an army of Romans and Greek allies, beginning the Second Macedonian War . In 197, the Romans decisively defeated Philip at the Battle of Cynoscephalae , and Philip was forced to give up his recent Greek conquests. The Romans declared the "Peace of the Greeks", believing that Philip's defeat now meant that Greece would be stable, and pulled out of Greece entirely. With Egypt and Macedonia weakened,
26064-409: The results of a Census. Since the Romans used a form of direct democracy, citizens, and not elected representatives, voted before each assembly. As such, the citizen-electors had no power, other than the power to cast a vote. Each assembly was presided over by a single Roman Magistrate, and as such, it was the presiding magistrate who made all decisions on matters of procedure and legality. Ultimately,
26245-411: The right which they possessed of excluding persons from the lists of citizens; for, as has been well remarked, "they would, in the first place, be the sole judges 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
26426-402: The same as that of the other higher magistrates. The funeral of a censor was always conducted with great pomp and splendour, and hence a "censorial funeral" ( funus censorium ) was voted even to the emperors. The censorship continued in existence for 421 years, from 443 BC to 22 BC, but during this period, many lustra passed by without any censor being chosen at all. According to one statement,
26607-476: The same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece , with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by a senate . There were annual elections, but the republican system was an elective oligarchy , not a democracy ; a small number of powerful families largely monopolised the magistracies. Roman institutions underwent considerable changes throughout the Republic to adapt to the difficulties it faced, such as
26788-572: The sea. This plan was thwarted by Hannibal's bold move to Italy. In May 218, he crossed the Ebro with a large army of about 100,000 soldiers and 37 elephants. He passed in Gaul , crossed the Rhone , then the Alps , possibly through the Col de Clapier . This exploit cost him almost half of his troops, but he could now rely on the Boii and Insubres, still at war with Rome. Publius Scipio, who had failed to block Hannibal on
26969-413: The station which a man occupied, though sometimes a person of the highest rank might suffer all the punishments at once, by being degraded to the lowest class of citizens. The punishments are generally divided into four classes: It was this authority of the Roman censors which eventually developed into the modern meaning of "censor" and " censorship "—i.e., officials who review published material and forbid
27150-545: The status of the investigation. After the investigation was complete, a three market-day interval had to elapse before a final vote could be taken with respect to conviction or acquittal. Only one assembly could operate at any given point in time, and any session already underway could be dissolved if a magistrate "called away" ( avocare ) the electors. In addition to the presiding magistrate, several additional magistrates were often present to act as assistants. They were available to help resolve procedural disputes, and to provide
27331-462: The throne and showed a renewed interest in conquering Greece. With its Greek allies facing a major new threat, Rome declared war on Macedonia again, starting the Third Macedonian War . Perseus initially had some success against the Romans, but Rome responded by sending a stronger army which decisively defeated the Macedonians at the Battle of Pydna in 168. The Macedonians capitulated, ending
27512-417: The truth of it depends entirely upon the correctness of [Niebuhr's] views respecting the election of the consuls". Both censors had to be elected on the same day, and accordingly if the voting for the second was not finished in the same day, the election of the first was invalidated, and a new assembly had to be held. The assembly for the election of the censors was held under different auspices from those at
27693-418: The two Censors. The Centuriate Assembly was supposedly founded by the legendary Roman King Servius Tullius , less than a century before the founding of the Roman Republic in 509 BC. As such, the original design of the Centuriate Assembly was known as the " Servian organization ". Under this organization, the assembly was supposedly designed to mirror the Roman army during the time of the Roman Kingdom , with
27874-635: The verge of losing the war. Pyrrhus again met the Romans at the Battle of Beneventum . This time, the consul Manius Dentatus was victorious and even captured eight elephants. Pyrrhus then withdrew from Italy, but left a garrison in Tarentum, to wage a new campaign in Greece against Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia . His death in battle at Argos in 272 BC forced Tarentum to surrender to Rome. Rome and Carthage were initially on friendly terms, lastly in an alliance against Pyrrhus, but tensions rapidly rose after
28055-443: The war. Convinced now that the Greeks (and therefore the rest of the region) would not have peace if left alone, Rome decided to establish its first permanent foothold in the Greek world, and divided Macedonia into four client republics. Yet Macedonian agitation continued. The Fourth Macedonian War , 150 to 148 BC, was fought against a Macedonian pretender to the throne who was again destabilizing Greece by trying to reestablish
28236-471: The wealthy soldiers were also divided into more centuries in the Centuriate Assembly. Thus, the wealthy soldiers, who were fewer in number and had more to lose, had a greater overall influence. The 193 centuries in the assembly under the Servian Organization were each divided into one of three different grades: the officer class (the cavalry or equites ), the enlisted class (infantry or pedites ) and
28417-518: The western Mediterranean, and so declared war. The Carthaginians lifted the siege of Syracuse before his arrival, but he could not entirely oust them from the island as he failed to take their fortress of Lilybaeum . His harsh rule soon led to widespread antipathy among the Sicilians; some cities even defected to Carthage. In 275 BC, Pyrrhus left the island before he had to face a full-scale rebellion. He returned to Italy, where his Samnite allies were on
28598-425: The whole Italian Peninsula in a century and thus became a major power in the Mediterranean. Its greatest strategic rival was Carthage , against which it waged three wars . Rome defeated Carthage at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, becoming the dominant power of the ancient Mediterranean world. It then embarked on a long series of difficult conquests, defeating Philip V and Perseus of Macedon , Antiochus III of
28779-496: Was soundly defeated by Catulus. Exhausted and unable to bring supplies to Sicily, Carthage sued for peace. Carthage had to pay 1,000 talents immediately and 2,200 over ten years and evacuate Sicily. The fine was so high that Carthage could not pay Hamilcar's mercenaries, who had been shipped back to Africa. They revolted during the Mercenary War , which Carthage suppressed with enormous difficulty. Meanwhile, Rome took advantage of
28960-413: Was a move by the plebeians to try to attain higher magistracies: only patricians could be elected consuls, while some military tribunes were plebeians. To prevent the possibility of plebeians obtaining control of the census, the patricians removed the right to take the census from the consuls and tribunes, and appointed for this duty two magistrates, called censores (censors), elected exclusively from
29141-431: Was abandoned after another similar catastrophe in 253 BC. These disasters prevented any significant campaign between 254 and 252 BC. Hostilities in Sicily resumed in 252 BC, with Rome's taking of Thermae. The next year, Carthage besieged Lucius Caecilius Metellus , who held Panormos (now Palermo). The consul had dug trenches to counter the elephants, which once hurt by missiles turned back on their own army, resulting in
29322-514: Was almost defenceless, and submitted when besieged. But the Romans demanded complete surrender and removal of the city into the desert hinterland, far from any coastal or harbour region; the Carthaginians refused. The city was besieged and completely destroyed . Rome acquired all of Carthage's North African and Iberian territories. The Romans rebuilt Carthage 100 years later as a Roman colony, by order of Julius Caesar. It flourished, becoming one of
29503-400: Was arable, what meadow, what vineyard, and what olive-ground: and of the land thus described, he had to give his assessment of its value. Slaves and cattle formed the next most important item. The censors also possessed the right of calling for a return of such objects as had not usually been given in, such as clothing, jewels, and carriages. It has been doubted by some modern writers whether
29684-454: Was assigned to one of the five property classes. Therefore, each Tribe had two centuries (one of older soldiers and one of younger soldiers) allocated to each of the five property classes. In addition, the property requirements for each of the five classes were probably raised. In total, this resulted in 350 centuries of enlisted soldiers. The same eighteen centuries of officers, and the same five centuries of unarmed soldiers, were also included in
29865-475: Was condemned to be a minor power, while Rome recovered from a desperate situation to dominate the western Mediterranean. Rome's preoccupation with its war with Carthage provided an opportunity for Philip V of Macedonia , in the north of the Greek peninsula , to attempt to extend his power westward. He sent ambassadors to Hannibal's camp in Italy, to negotiate an alliance as common enemies of Rome. But Rome discovered
30046-452: Was conducted by the presiding magistrate the night before any meeting. On several known occasions, presiding magistrates used the claim of unfavorable omens as an excuse to suspend a session that was not going the way they wanted. In 162, the presiding magistrate, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus , even cancelled the elections of the consuls Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum and Gaius Marcius Figulus because he found he had not conducted
30227-425: Was easy, according to Roman notions, to the decisions 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." In this manner, the censors gradually assumed at least nominal complete superintendence over the whole public and private life of every citizen. They were constituted as
30408-410: Was granted to them by the Centuriate Assembly , and not by the curiae , and in that respect they were inferior in power to the consuls and praetors. Notwithstanding this, the censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the dictatorship ; it was a "sacred magistracy" ( sanctus magistratus ), to which the deepest reverence was due. The high rank and dignity which
30589-446: Was later avenged at the Battle of Veii in 396 BC, wherein Rome destroyed the city. By the end of this period, Rome had effectively completed the conquest of its immediate Etruscan and Latin neighbours and secured its position against the immediate threat posed by the nearby Apennine hill tribes. Beginning with their revolt against Tarquin, and continuing through the early years of the Republic, Rome's patrician aristocrats were
30770-439: Was limited as patrician tribunes retained preeminence over their plebeian colleagues. In 385 BC, the former consul and saviour of the besieged capital, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus , is said to have sided with the plebeians, ruined by the sack and largely indebted to patricians. According to Livy, Capitolinus sold his estate to repay the debt of many of them, and even went over to the plebs, the first patrician to do so. Nevertheless,
30951-524: Was mobilized under the command of the great hero of the Second Punic War, Scipio Africanus , and set out for Greece, beginning the Roman–Seleucid War . After initial fighting that revealed serious Seleucid weaknesses, the Seleucids tried to turn the Roman strength against them at the Battle of Thermopylae , but were forced to evacuate Greece. The Romans pursued the Seleucids by crossing the Hellespont ,
31132-454: Was repealed in the third consulship of Pompey in 52 BC, on the urging of his colleague Q. Caecilius Metellus Scipio , but the office of the censorship never recovered its former power and influence. During the civil wars which followed soon afterwards, no censors were elected; it was only after a long interval that they were again appointed, namely in 23 BC, when Augustus caused Lucius Munatius Plancus and Aemilius Lepidus Paullus to fill
31313-518: Was sacked by the Senones . There is no destruction layer at Rome around this time, indicating that if a sack occurred, it was largely superficial. Second Samnite War Third Samnite War From 343 to 341 BC, Rome won two battles against its Samnite neighbours, but was unable to consolidate its gains, due to the outbreak of war with former Latin allies. In the Latin War (340–338 BC), Rome defeated
31494-452: Was subject to the census. Only such things were liable to the census ( censui censendo ) as were property according to the Quiritary law. At first, each citizen appears to have merely given the value of his whole property in general without entering into details; but it soon became the practice to give a minute specification of each article, as well as the general value of the whole. Land formed
31675-460: Was that the votes of the older soldiers carried more weight than did the votes of the numerically greater younger soldiers. According to Cicero , the Consul of 63 BC, this design was intentional so that the decisions of the assembly were more in line with the will of the more experienced soldiers who arguably had more to lose. The 170 centuries of enlisted soldiers were divided into five classes, each with
31856-461: Was the committee ( comitia , literally "going together" or "meeting place"). The Centuriate Assembly was a Committee. Committees were assemblies of all citizens , and were used for official purposes, such as for the enactment of laws. Acts of a Committee applied to all of the members of that Committee. The second type of assembly was the council ( concilium ), which was a forum where specific groups of citizens met for official purposes. In contrast,
32037-438: Was the first Roman to receive a naval triumph, which also included captive Carthaginians for the first time. Although Carthage was victorious on land at Thermae in Sicily, the corvus gave a strong advantage to Rome on the waters. The consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio (Asina's brother) captured Corsica in 259 BC; his successors won the naval battles of Sulci in 258, Tyndaris in 257 BC, and Cape Ecnomus in 256. To hasten
32218-409: Was the landing in Sicily of Hamilcar Barca in 247 BC, who harassed the Romans with a mercenary army from a citadel he built on Mt. Eryx . Unable to take the Punic fortresses in Sicily, Rome tried to decide the war at sea and built a new navy, thanks to a forced borrowing from the rich. In 242 BC, 200 quinqueremes under consul Gaius Lutatius Catulus blockaded Drepana. The rescue fleet from Carthage
32399-473: Was the turning point of the war. The campaign of attrition had worked well: Hannibal's troops were now depleted; he only had one elephant left ( Surus ) and retreated to Bruttium , on the defensive. In Greece, Rome contained Philip V without devoting too many forces by allying with the Aetolian League , Sparta , and Pergamon , which also prevented Philip from aiding Hannibal. The war with Macedon resulted in
32580-470: Was then asked, "You, declaring from your heart, do you have a wife?" and if married he had to give the name of his wife, and likewise the number, names, and ages of his children, if any. Single women and orphans were represented by their guardians; their names were entered in separate lists, and they were not included in the sum total of heads. After a citizen had stated his name, age, family, etc., he then had to give an account of all his property, so far as it
32761-439: Was thus, notwithstanding the reproach of the censors ( animadversio censoria ), made dictator . A person might be branded with a censorial mark in a variety of cases, which it would be impossible to specify, as in a great many instances it depended upon the discretion of the censors and the view they took of a case; and sometimes even one set of censors would overlook an offence which was severely chastised by their successors. But
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