Scanned text contains errors.

264

CENSOR.

ing the animadversio censoria, made dictator. (Liv. iv. 31.)

A person might be branded with a censorial nota 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. (Cic. de Senect. 12.) But the offences which are re­corded to have been punished by the censors are of a threefold nature.

1. Such as occurred in the private life of indi­viduals, e. g. (a) Living in celibacy at a time when a person ought to be married to provide the state with citizens. (Val. Max. ii. 9. § 1.) The obligation of marrying was frequently impressed upon the citizens by the censors, and the refusal to fulfil it was punished with a fine [AES uxorium]. (6) The dissolution of matrimony or betrothment in an improper way, or for insufficient reasons. (Val, Max. ii. 9. § 2.) (c) Improper conduct towards one's wife or children, as well as harshness or too great indulgence towards children, and disobedi­ence of the latter towards their parents. (Plut. Cat. Maj. 17 ; compare Cic. de Rep. iv. 6 ; Dionys. xx. 3.) (d) Inordinate and luxurious mode of living, or an extravagant expenditure of money. A great many instances of this kind are recorded. (Liv, Epti. 14, xxxix. 44 ; Plut. Cat. Maj. 18 ; Gellius, iv. 8 ; Val. Max. ii. 9. § 4.) At a later time the leges sumtuariae were made to check the growing love of luxuries, (e) Neglect and care­lessness in cultivating one^s fields. (Gell. iv. 12 ; Plin. H. N. xviii. 3.) (/) Cruelty towards slaves or clients. (Dionys. xx. 3.) (g) The carrying on of a disreputable trade or occupation (Dionys. I. c.\ such as acting in theatres. (Liv. vii. 2.) (ft) Le­gacy-hunting, defrauding orphans, &c.

2. Offences committed in public life, either in the capacity of a public officer or against magis­trates, (a) If a magistrate acted in a manner not befitting hik dignity as an officer, if he was acces­sible to bribes, or forged auspices. (Cic. de Senect.-12 ; Liv. xxxix. 42 ; Val. Max. ii. 9. § 3 ; Plut. Cat. Maj. 17 ; Cic. de Divin. i. 16.) (I) Im­proper conduct towards a magistrate, or the attempt to limit his power or to abrogate a law which the censors thought necessary. (Liv. iv. 24 ; Cic. de Orat. ii. 64; Val. Max. ii. 9. § 5 ; Gellius, iv. 20.) (c) Perjury. (Cic. de Off. i. 13 ; Liv. xxiv. 18 ; Gell. vii. 18.) (rZ) Neglect, disobedience, and cowardice of soldiers in the army. (V^il. Max. ii. 9. § 7 j Liv. xxiv. 18, xxvii. 11.) («) The keeping of the equus publicus in bad condition. [equites.]

3. A variety of actions or pursuits which were thought to be injurious to public morality, might be forbidden by the censors by an edict (Gellius, xv. 11), and those who acted contrary to such edicts were branded with the nota and degraded. For an enumeration of the offences that might be punished by the censors with ignominia, see Nie-buhr, Hist, of Rome, vol. ii. p. 339, &c.

The punishments inflicted by the censors gene­rally differed according to 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. But they are generally divided into four classes : —

1. Motio or ejectio e senatu, or the exclusion of a man from the number of senators. This punish-

CENSOR.

ment might either be a simple exclusion from the list of senators, or the person might at the same time be excluded from the tribes and degraded to the rank of an aerarian. (Liv. xxiv. 18.) The latter course seems to have been seldom adopted ; the ordinary mode of inflicting the punishment was simply this: the censors in their new lists omitted the names of such senators as they wished to ex­clude, and in reading these new lists in public, passed over the names of those who were no-longer to be senators. Hence the expression praetoritt senatores is equivalent to e senatu ejecti. (Liv. xxxviii. 28, xxvii. 11, xxxiv. 44; Fest. s. v. Praeteriti.} In some cases, however, the censors did not acquiesce in this simple mode of proceed­ing, but addressed the senator whom they had noted, and publicly reprimanded him for his con­duct. (Liv. xxiv. 18.) As, however, in ordinary cases an ex-senator was not disqualified by his ignominia for holding any of the magistracies which opened the way to the senate, he might at the next census again become a senator. (Cic. pro Cluent. 42, Plut. Cic. 17.)

2. The ademptio eqid^ or the taking away the equus publicus from an eques. This punishment might likewise be simple, or combined with the ex­clusion from the tribes and the degradation to the rank of an aerarian. (Liv. xxiv. 18, 43, xxvii. 11, xxix. 37, xliii. 16.) [equites.]

3. The motio e tribu, or the exclusion of a person from his tribe. This punishment and the degra­dation to the rank of an aerarian were originally the same ; but when in the course of time a dis­tinction was made between the tribus rusticae and the tribus urbanae, the motio e tribu transferred a person from the rustic tribes to the less respectable city tribes, and if the further degradation to the rank of an aerarian was combined with the motio-e tribu, it was always expressly stated. (Liv. xlv. 15; Plin. //. N. xviii. 3.)

4. The fourth punishment was called referre in aerarios (Liv. xxiv. 18 ; Cic. pro Cluent. 43) or facere aliquem aerarium (Liv. xxiv. 43), and might be inflicted on any person who was thought by the censors to deserve it. [aeraril] This de­gradation, properly speaking, included all the other punishments, for an eques could not be made an aerarius unless he was previously deprived of his horse, nor could a member of a rustic tribe be made an aerarius unless he was previously excluded from it. (Liv. iv. 24, xxiv. 18, &c.)

A person who had been branded with a nota censoria, might, if he considered himself wronged, endeavour to prove his innocence to the censors (causam agere ctpud censor'es, Varr. de Re Rust. i. 7), 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.

III. the administration op the finances of the state, 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 the jurisdiction of the censors. (Comp. Liv. xxxix. 44) [tributum.] 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, &c. [vectigalia.] All these branches of the revenue the censors were accustomed to let out