The Rise of the Roman Republic71Other magistrates called praetorsadministered justice,
though they, too, might serve as generals in time of
war. Upon taking office they made a public declaration
of the principles by which they would interpret the law,
and these statements became landmarks in the develop-
ment of Roman jurisprudence. The most respected of-
fice in the Roman state was that of censor.There were
two of them, and they registered citizens as well as su-
pervised morals and guaranteed public contracts. They
could also remove senators from office on financial or
ethical grounds. Other offices included the quaestors
who assisted the consuls, especially on financial mat-
ters, and four aediles,who supervised markets and other
public services. All were subject to interference from
the tribunes, whose persons were still sacrosanct and
who served as spokesmen for those who felt oppressed
by the magistrates.
But the Senate, in theory no more than an advisory
body, remained the most powerful institution of the
Roman state (see document 4.5). Its members were
originally appointed by the consuls; after 312 B.C. that
right was given to the censors. Most senators were for-
mer consuls, which meant that they were men of great
wealth and experience—the leading citizens of Rome.
Few consuls dared to ignore their advice, and the
quaestors, who were mostly young men ambitious for
higher office, followed them without hesitation. Be-
cause the quaestors administered public expenditures,
this gave the Senate de factocontrol over finance.
The Senate was also responsible for provincial af-
fairs, including the distribution of newly acquired pub-
lic lands and of income derived from provincial sources.
This enormous source of patronage supplemented the
vast resources already available to the rich and power-
ful. Whether patrician or plebeian, the senators were all
nobilesand patrons who could count on the support of
clients in the assemblies and at every level of the ad-
ministration. They could therefore influence legislationIllustration 4.4
A Census. A census was taken every five years by the con-
suls of the republic to ensure that citizens were properly assigned
to their classes and to facilitate recruitment into the army. On the
right, citizens make their declarations to a scribe and an assessorin the presence of soldiers. On the left, a bull, a sheep, and a pig
are offered in sacrifice. Like most civic rituals in the Republic, the
census had a religious dimension as well. The reliefs probably
date from 115 B.C. to 97 B.C.The classification of troops by the first census after the
Servian reforms of 444 B.C. provides a measure of Roman
wealth and population in the early republic. The classifi-
cations of wealth in terms of asses,a coin introduced in
the third century B.C. when about thirty-three of them
were needed to purchase a bushel of wheat, are therefore
approximate, but scholars believe that they provide a fair
estimate of the citizen population and its relative poverty.
Property
Number of Number qualification
Class centuries of men (in asses)
Cavalry 18 1,800
I 80 8,000 100,000
II 20 2,000 75,000
III 20 2,000 50,000
IV 20 2,000 25,000
V 30 3,000 12,500
Engineers 2 200 Ranked with class I
Musicians,
proletarians,
and others 3 300 None
Total 193 19,300
Source: Adapted from T. Frank, ed., An Economic Survey of Ancient
Rome,vol. 1 (Paterson, N.J.: Pageant Books, 1959), p. 20.TABLE 4.1The ‘Servian’ Classification of Male Citizenseas for years at a time. In 325 B.C., the office of proconsul
was created by extending a consul’s field command for
the duration of the campaign even though his term as
consul had expired. This institution, even more than
the dictatorship, became a threat to the survival of the
republic in later years, for it allowed the proconsul to
develop an independent geographic and military base.