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Timeline - Censors of Rome During the Roman RepublicBackground on CensorsThe fifth Roman king, Servius Tullius, divided the Romans into tribes, creating new ones in addition to the three original ones (ramnes, tities, luceres), and carried out the first census to distinguish the people into ranks based on wealth and property. After the dissolution of the monarchy, consuls took over the task of taking the census, and then in 443, a new magistracy was created to carry out the task of taking the census. In addition to serving as census-takers, these high ranking magistrates acted as censors dealing with morality, and were called censores. By being two in number they carried on the tradition of the dual consuls.• The comitia curiata elected the censores. • At first the censors' term of office was a lustrum or about 5 years, but it was soon reduced to a period of 18 months. • Although the censors were awarded no imperium, and therefore had no bodyguarding lictors, the office was second only to the office of dictator in dignity. • The dictator Q. Publilius Philo proposed what are called the Leges Publiliae (339 B.C.). The first of these laws was one to make one of the censors a plebeian. According to "The Roman Censors," by Robert Vincent Cram (Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 51, In Honor of William Scott Ferguson. (1940), pp. 71-110.), the first plebeian censor was C. Marcius in 351 B.C. • According to the same source, the censorship ended in A.D. 22 when the emperor assumed the role of censor. • In 280 the first plebeian censor performed the purification rite (lustrum) for the people of Rome. • In 131 B.C. both censors were plebeian for the first time. • The censorship lasted from 443-22 B.C. Sources Primary Livy IV 8.2-6. Secondary Censor - William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875. T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome. Routledge: 1995. [A valuable addition to your home library.] Index of Roman Timelines | The Census | Roman Timelines
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