office
censor
also: censor, censores
Magistrate who conducted the census and supervised public morals, with power to strike unworthy members from the Senate's roll.
Reading notes
- The Conspiracy of Catiline §23 censors
Magistrates who held the census and policed morals; they could expel a disgraced member from the Senate, as they did Curius.
- The Jugurthine War §86 property classes
The Servian census-classes by which Romans had traditionally been levied for the legions by wealth; Marius instead enrolled the capite censi.
- The Jugurthine War §86 head-count
The capite censi (proletarii), citizens too poor to be rated in the property classes and counted only by head; Marius's enrollment of them broke with the propertied levy and reshaped the army.