Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/76

62 Functions of the Censors. — Censors were to have charge of the census. They enrolled and assessed the citizens and assigned each one to the proper Servian class and century, and to a district (tribus). They regulated the list of horsemen (equites equo publico). In performing these functions, they were not subject to consular or tribunician intercession, and were practically irresponsible. They exercised accordingly a great influence on the organization and the character of the assembly of centuries and even on the two assemblies based on districts (concilium plebis and comitia tributa), Under the superintendence of the senate the censors adjusted the budget of the state, — farmed out taxes, let contracts for the erection or repair of public works, and so forth. Because of their irresponsibility in taking the census, and owing to powers later acquired, they became in some respects the highest officers in the state and one of the mainstays of the aristocratic government.

II. Economic Measures and Party Politics.

Economic Conditions. — When the plebeian aristocracy had gained possession of the plebeian tribunate, the privilege of intermarriage, and admission to the consular tribunate, they rested on their laurels and made no earnest effort to reform the management of the public domain or the law of debt. In other words they betrayed the cause of the ordinary plebeians, and enabled the patrician government to withhold from the common people whatever it pleased. Although the state became an aggressive military power and needed a numerous class of farmers, that is, of soldiers (pp. 22-23), public lands were given to individual citizens only in comparatively few places, on a scale by no means adequate to relieve the farmers, and for military rather than economic reasons. Four new districts (tribus) were, however, organized in 387.