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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 the jurisdiction of the censors.[90] 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 the month of March,[91] in a public place in Rome[92] 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.[93] For further particulars see Publicani. The censors also possessed the right, though probably not without the assent of the Senate, of imposing new vectigalia,[94] and even of selling the land belonging to the state.[95] 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 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 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 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.[96] They had to see that the temples and all other public buildings were in a good state of repair,[97] that no public places were encroached upon by the occupation of private persons,[98] and that the aqueduct, 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.[99] The persons who undertook 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.[100] 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, walls of towns, aqueducts, harbours, bridges, cloacae, roads, etc. These works were either performed by them jointly, or they divided between them the money, which had been granted to them by the senate.[101] 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.[102] 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. Lustrum After 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;[103] 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 the derived sense of a period of five years, i.e. half a decennium. Census statistics Census Population Economic crises Wars Epidemics 508 BC 130,000 505–504 BC 503 BC 120,000 499 or 496 BC 498 BC 150,700 493 BC 110,000 492–491 BC 486 BC 474 BC 103,000 474 BC 474 BC 465 BC 104,714 459 BC 117,319 456 BC 454 BC 454 BC 440–439 BC 433 BC 433 BC 428 BC 428 BC 412 BC 412 BC 400 BC 396 BC 392 BC 152,573 392 BC 392 BC 390 BC 390 BC 386 BC 383 BC 383 BC 343–341 BC 340 BC 165,000 340–338 BC 326–304 BC 323 BC 150,000 299 BC 298–290 BC 294 BC 262,321 293/292 BC 289 BC 272,200 281 BC 280 BC 287,222 280–275 BC 276 BC 271,224 276 BC? 265 BC 292,234 264–241 BC 252 BC 297,797 250 BC 250 BC 247 BC 241,712 241 BC 260,000 234 BC 270,713 216 BC 216 BC 211–210 BC 211–210 BC 209 BC 137,108 204 BC 214,000 204 BC 203 BC 201 BC 200 BC 200–195 BC 194 BC 143,704 192–188 BC 189 BC 258,318 187 BC 182–180 BC 179 BC 258,318 176–175 BC 174 BC 269,015 171–167 BC 169 BC 312,805 165 BC 164 BC 337,022 159 BC 328,316 154 BC 324,000 153 BC 147 BC 322,000 142 BC 322,442 142 BC 138 BC 136 BC 317,933 131 BC 318,823 125 BC 394,736 123 BC 115 BC 394,336 104 BC 87 BC 86 BC 463,000 75 BC 70 BC 910,000 67 BC 65 BC 54 BC 49–46 BC 43 BC 28 BC 4,063,000 23–22 23–22 8 BC 4,233,000 5–6 10 14 AD 4,937,000 Sources Brunt, P. A. Italian Manpower 225 BC – AD 14. Oxford, 1971; Wiseman, T. P. The Census in the first century B.C. Journal of Roman Studies, 1969; Virlouvet, C. Famines et émeutes à Rome, des origines de la République à la mort de Néron. Roma, 1985; Suder, W., Góralczyk, E. Sezonowość epidemii w Republice Rzymskiej. Vitae historicae, Księga jubileuszowa dedykowana profesorowi Lechowi A. Tyszkiewiczowi w siedemdziesiątą rocznicę urodzin. Wrocław, 2001. Andrea Doria as "perpetual censor" Andrea Doria, the famous 16th Century Genoese admiral, was rewarded for his services to his city with the title of "perpetual censor"—inspired by, though not precisely identical with, the Roman one. |
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