THE CENSUS
As interpreted by Mommsen,[1] who holds that As interpreted by Belot,[2]
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 B.C.)
(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.[3] 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.[4] 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."]
- ↑ Staatsrecht iii pp. 249, 250. Böckh (Metrologische Untersuchungen p. 444)
also takes the view of the asses being sextantarii. He makes the qualifications in
terms of the libral as and the as of two ounces respectively: 20,000 = 100,000,
15,000 = 75,000, 10,000 = 50,000, 5000 = 25,000, 2000 = 10,000. - ↑ Histoire des Chevaliers Romains (Table at commencement of vol. i).
- ↑ Festus p. 18 "accensi dicebantur qui in locum mortuorum militum subito subrogabantur, dicti ita, quia ad censum adiciebantur"; p. 369 "velati appellabantur vestiti et inermes qui exercitum sequebantur, quique in mortuorum militum loco substituebantur." Cf. p. 14 "adscripticii veluti quidam scripti dicebantur, qui supplendis legionibus adscribebantur. Hos et accensos dicebant, quod ad legionum censum essent adscripti. Quidam velatos, quia vestiti inermes sequerentur exercitum."
- ↑ Liv. i. 43 "hoc minor census reliquam multitudinem habuit; inde una centuria facta est immunis militia"; Dionys. iv. 18 (the remaining citizens with a qualification under 12-1/2 minae Servius placed in one [Greek: lochos
