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the Greek and Roman affairs it is more frequently called thu- ribulum, fc&ml)*, and acerra. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 2. p. 957- voc. turibulum. See Acerra.
The Jewifh cenfer was a fmall fort of chaffing difb, covered with a dome, and fufpended by a chain. Jofephus tells us that Solomon made twenty thoufand gold cenjers for the tem- ple of Jerufalem, to offer perfumes in, and fifty thoufand others to carry fire in. Trev. Difl. Univ. T. 2. p. n 56. voc. at- cenfoir. ,
CENSIO, in antiquity, the act, or office of the cenfor. Vid. Cah. Lex Jur. p. 168. Fab. Thef. p. 522. See Censor, and Census.
Cetifio included both the rating, or valuing a man's eftate; and the impofmg mulcts and penalties. Ceksio hafiarta, a punifhment inflicted on a Roman foldier for fome offence, as lazinefs or luxury, whereby his hafta or fpear was taken from him, and confequently his wages, and hopes of preferment flopped. Fejl. in voc. Aquin. Lex. Mil. T. 1. p. 192. Mifcel. Lipf.T. 9. Obf. 183. §. 4. CENSITUS, a perfon cenfed, or entered in the cenfual tables. SccCensus. Fab. Thef. p. 529.
In an ahtient monument found at Ancyra, containing the ac- tions of the emperor Octavius, we read '§hid lujiro avium Romanorum Cenfita Jimt capita quadragies Centum mi Ilia & fexaginta tria. Censitus is alfo ufed in the civil law for a fcrvile fort of tenant, who pays capitation to his lord for the land he holds of him, and is entered as fuch in the lord's rent-roll. In which fenfe, the word amounts to the fame with capite cenfus, or capite cen- fiius. Vid. I. 1 j. Cod. tit. de Agricolis, L olonis & Cenfitis. Fahr. Thef. p. 525. See Capite cenfi. CENSOR(C>/.) — Befides the tafk of holding the cenfus and lu- fthim,which was purely minffterialjthe cenfors of antient Rome had the particular cognizance and infpection of all the citizens, and In confequence of it, a power to cenfure or animadvert up- on any vice or immorality, in all orders of men whatsoever ; which they took an oath to difcharge without favour oraffeclion. Butthis power reached no farther then to inflict fome publicmark of ignominy, on lewd and vicious periods, in proportion to the fcandal which they had given, by degrading or fufpendirjg them from the privileges of that particular rank which they held in the city. This was their proper jurifdiction, and the foundation of their power over the fenate; by virtue of which they frequently purged it of fome of its unworthy and profligate members, by leaving out of the new roll the names of thofe fenators whom they found unworthy to fit in. that auguft af- fembly, for the notoriety of their crimes ; which they ufed com- monly to- aflign as the caufe of their inflicting this difgrace a . There are many examples of fenators thus expelled by the cenfors, generally for good reafons, yet fometimes through 1 mere peevifhnefs, envy or revenge b : but in fuch cafes, there was always the liberty of an appeal to the final judgment of the people. So that the cenfor ian power, properly fpeaking, was not that of making or unmaking fenators, but of enrolling only thofe whom the people had made ; and of infpecting their man- ners, and animadverting upon their vices; over which they had a fpecial jurifdiction delegated by the people. Their rule of cenfuring feems to have been grounded on an old maxim of the Roman policy, injoining, that the fenate jhoidd be pure from all blemtjb, and an example of manners to all the other orders of the city : as we find it laid down by Cicero c in his book of laws, which were drawn, as he tells us, from the plan of the Roman conftitution. — [ "Cic. pro Dom. 51. Liv. 4. 8. Id. 39. 42. b Liv. 39. 37. c Cic. deLeg. 3. Middlet. of Rom. Senat. p. 59»feq]
The centers, were generally men of the firft dignity in the city, and always of confular rank ; fo that their acts had naturally a great weight : and the feverity of their difcipline was confider- ed by the honeft of all orders, as a great guard and fecurity to the republic : and when they acted even on fpiteful and peevifh motives, yet the parties injured would not always take the trouble of going through a trial, fince they could be relieved without it, either by the next cenjers a , or other wife, as fball be mere particularly mentioned hereafter. But if any of thefe anittiadverfions continued to have a lafting effect, it was al- ways owing to an univerfal approbation of them from all the orders of the city : for whenever they appeared to be violent or grofly unjufi, neither the fenate nor the people would endure them for a moment b . — [ a Afcon. m Divinat. 3. b Middleto?i, lib. cit. p. 68-]
1 he uflice of caifor, at its firft institution, was defigned to be quinquennial, or to continue in the fame hand for five years ; but this length of magiftracy, unknown before to Rome, was reduced foon after to one year and an half, by a law of Ma- mcrcus ./EmiUus the dictator. Middlet. 1. c. p. 70. The cenfors continuing in their ofHce for eighteen months on- ly, if we fuppofe them, with the generality of writers, to have been created every five years, the office muft have lain dormant for three years and an half. Middlet. 1. c. p. 106. See Cen- sus and Lustrum.
It was one part of the cenforian jurifdiction to fill up the va- cancies of the fenate, upon any remarkable deficiency in their
number, with new members from the equeftrian order, who had not yet born any magiftracy : but this was not done arbi- trarily, or without the confent and approbation of the people. For byobferving the manner of proceeding on fome extraordi- nary occafions, we may collect the legal and regular method in ordinary cafes. For example % after the battle of CanntZy the fenate being greatly exhaufted, and no cenfors in office, a dictator was created for the iingle purpofe of filling up the va- cancies, who prefently afcended the roftra, and in the prefence of the people affemblcd in the forum, ordered all thofe who remained alive of the laft cenforian lilt, to be firft called, and enrolled anew ; then thofe who, fince that time, had born a curule magiftracy, but had not been enrolled, each according to the order of his creation ; then thofe who had been aediles, tribunes of the people, or quaeftors ; and Jaftly, thofe of the equeftrian rank, who had born no magiftracy at all, but had fignalized themfelves in the war, and taken fpoils from the enemy : and having thus added one hundred and feventy-feven new fenators to the laft roll, with the univerfal approbation of the people, lie laid down his office b . Upon another occafion likewife, when Sylla the dictator, after the deft ruction made by his civil wars and profcriptions, found it neceflary to fill up the exhaufted fenate with three hundred knights, he gave the choice of them to the people in an aflembly of their tribes c .— [ a Middleton, of Rom. Sen. p. 8. b Liv. 1. 23. 23. c App. de Bell. Civ. 1. 1. p. 413. Middlet on, 1. c. p. 10.] The power of the cenfors being naturally odious and unpopular, was generally exercifed with temper and caution, unlefs when an extraordinary licence and corruption of the times feemed to demand a particular feverity and enforcement of difcipline. The cenfurcs, however, of thefe magiftrates were not perpe- tual or irreverfible, nor confidered as bars to any future ad- vancement ; for what was inflicted by one cenfor, was fome- times reverfed by the other ; and what was done by them both, by an appeal to the people, or by the fucceeding cenfirj, who commonly reftored the difgraced party to his former dignity; or elfe by obtaining a fecond time, any of the magis- tracies abovementioned, the perfon fo difgraced entered again into the fenate, and was enrolled of courfe by two cenfors. 1 hus we find fome who had fuffered the cenforian note of infamy, chofen cenfors afterwards themfelves. Cicero, pro Clucnt. 42. It. 43. Vol Max. 1. 2. 9. 9. Middlet. 1. c. p. \o. The feverity of the cenforftiip of L. Gallius and Corn. Lentu- lus furnifhed a pretext to P. Clodius, for procuring a law to prohibit the cenfors from ftriking any one out of the roll of the fenate, or difgracing him in any manner upon the report of common fame, or the notoriety of any crime, till he had been formally accufed, and found guilty by the common judgment of both the cenfors. Dio. 1. 37. p. 66. E. Middlct. 1. c. p. 79. Befides this tafk of enrolling the fenators, and infpecting their manners, it was a partlifcewife of the cenforian jurifdiction, to let out to farm all the lands, revenues, and cuftoms of the republic ; and to contract with artificers for the charge of building and repairing all the public works and edifices, both in Rome, and the colonies of Italy a . Now in this branch of their office it is certain that they acted merely under the autho- rity of the people, and were prohibited by law to let out any of the revenues, except in the roftra, under the immediate in- flection, and in the very prefence of the people b . — [ a liv. 29. 37. PoJyb.L 6. 404. C. b Cic. de Leg. Agrar. 1 . 3. lb. 7. 21. Ltv. 41. 2. Middlet. 1. c. p. 83, 85.] In the genera] cenfus and review of the city, held by them every five years, though every fmgle citizen was particulary fum- moned and enrolled by name in his proper tribe, as a freeman of Rome, yet that folemn enrollment, as Cicero tells us, did not confirm any man's right to a citizenfhip, but fignified on- ly, that he had patted for a citizen at that time a ; becaufe the proper power of determining that right refided always in the people b . — [ a Cic. pio Arch. 5. b Liv. X. 52. Middlet. 1. c, p. 85, 86.]
The cenfor was originally called indifferently by this name, or that of cenfitcr ; tho' in after-times a distinction was made, the appellation cenftor being reftrained to thofe who performed the office of cenfing or afleffing the people in the provinces ; and that of the cenfor reftrained to the magiftrates of Rome. Fab. Thef. p. 526.
The office continued to the timeof the emperors, who affirmed the authority of it to themfelves, but without the name, calling themfelves inftead of cenfors, marnm precfecli » : tho' Vefpafian and his fons took a pride to be called cenfors, and put this among their other titles on their coins b . Decius attempted to reftore the dignity to a particular magiftrate c . After this we hear no more of it till Conftantine's time, who made his brother cenfor; the laft who feems to have enjoyed the office d .— [ 3 Plut. in Cat. Major. Fab. Thef. p. 523. ^Walk. on Coins and Medals,?. 1. c. 9. J. 7. 'TrebelL Poll, in Decio. d Walk. loc. cit. Fab. Thef. loc. cit. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 1. p. 1547. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. Rom. T. 1. p. 392, feq. Schoetg. Ant Lex. p. 299.] CENSORIAL, cenforius, fomethiug that relates to the office of cenfors. See Censor.
In which fenfe we meet with cenfona n;ta, or antmadverjw^ cetiforia virgula, &c.
Censorial
