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 THE CENSUS

As interpreted by Mommsen, who holds that          As interpreted by Belot, the figures are given in asses sextantarii            who holds that the [i.e. asses of two ounces weight—1/6 of the          figures are given in asses libral as (the later sestertius)]. librales (later sestertii).

The older as    Later (circa 269 ) (1/4 denarius)  equivalent to 1/10 denarius

1st Classis   40,000           100,000                   100,000 2nd   "       30,000            75,000                    75,000 3rd    "       20,000            50,000                    50,000 4th   "       10,000            25,000                    25,000 5th    "        4,400            11,000                    12,500

Another century was formed by the accensi or velati. These were men with no heavy armour, who might be enrolled as occasion required (adscripticii), or who marched to battle as light-armed troops ready at any moment to take the armour and places of the fallen legionaries. No property qualification was required for these three groups, the reason being that their place in the army did not demand it. But to these Livy and Dionysius add another unpropertied class, the century of proletarii, which included the whole mass of the people not registered in the classes. If, however, we believe in the originally military character of the organisation, there seems no place for this) [Greek: strateias te apelyse kai pasês eisphoras epoiêsen ateleis]. Cf. vii. 59 [Greek: outoi strateiôn te hêsan eleutheroi tôn ek katalogou kai eisphorôn tôn kata timêmata genomenôn ateleis kai di' amphô taut' en tais psêphophoriais atimotatoi.] Cf. Cic. de Rep. ii. 22, 40 "in quo etiam verbis ac nominibus ipsis fuit diligens; qui, cum locupletes assiduos appellasset ab asse dando, eos, qui aut non plus mille quingentos aeris aut omnino nihil in suum censum praeter caput attulissent, proletarios nominavit; ut ex iis quasi proles, id est quasi progenies civitatis, exspectari videretur. Illarum autem sex et nonaginta centuriarum in una centuria tum quidem plures censebantur, quam paene in prima classe tota."]