The Ancient Standard

Censorship in Ancient Rome (ca. 443 – 22 BC)

By: The Scribe on January, 2008

The government in ancient Rome was similar to governments found in many Western countries today – convoluted and with too many levels! But, the Romans liked it that way, as it allowed them to keep track of all the goings-on in the Empire. One of the offices of government was something called a ‘censorship’.

Censors in ancient Rome were responsible for an odd mixture of tasks. Their primary purpose was to take a census of citizens within the Roman Empire every five years: they would write down each citizen’s name, their age, and what amount of property they owned. This was done so that the information could be taken to the quaestors, who would estimate each person’s taxation levels, the Empire’s budget, and the amount of soldiers commanded by Rome.

Although the number of censors and their terms changed throughout the centuries, the tradition of the post held that two censors would serve together for 18 months – one was from the patrician class, while the other was a plebeian.

Once they gained their census information, censors had the charge of determining who among the population was allowed to be counted among certain class levels – for example, who was worthy of senatorial rank as opposed to equestrian, and so forth. This was called the ‘regimen morum’ (public morality), and was an extremely important duty. Other duties of the ‘regimen morum’ were also the verification and stamping with the Imperial Seal any weights or measures, and managing the books of financial institutions.

Apart from their census task, the censors were often responsible for funding and managing public projects. Conquered land was leased out and recorded by censors, while a more important task – or at least in the eyes of the Romans – was for them to choose a farmer who would feed the Capitol’s holy geese for a 5-year term.

Consuls were elected officials by an assembly of Roman citizens called the ‘Comitia centuriata’. They were required to wear a toga bordered with purple, in order to denote their important class, though unlike other elected officials they were not given bodyguards.

As the Roman Empire grew in size, the job of the consulship became rather overwhelming – there were simply too many people for only 2 men to account for, and so the office was eventually abolished. It was replaced with generic officials who would be sent out to count the people on the Emperor’s orders, and they would be counted according to province. For example, the Gospel of Luke discusses how in 8 AD, Caesar Augustus issued a census of the entire Roman Empire.

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