| 1st Classis— | 100,000 asses (Livy and Dionysius), [288] 120,000 asses (Pliny and Festus). [289] | ||
| Seniores, 40 cent. | } | 80 | |
| Juniores, 40 cent. | } | ||
| 2nd Classis— | 75,000 asses (Liv. and Dionys.). | ||
| Seniores, 10 cent. | } | 20 | |
| Juniores, 10 cent. | } | ||
| 3rd Classis— | 50,000 asses (Liv. and Dionys.). | ||
| Seniores, 10 cent. | } | 20 | |
| Juniores, 10 cent. | } | ||
| 4th Classis— | 25,000 asses. | ||
| Seniores, 10 cent. | } | 20 | |
| Juniores, 10 cent. | } | ||
| 5th Classis— | 11,000 asses (Liv.), 12,500 (Dionys. 12½ minae). | ||
| Seniores, 15 cent. | } | 30 | |
| Juniores, 15 cent. | } | ||
| Fabri—2 cent. (voting with 1st class, Liv.; with 2nd class, Dionys.) | 6 cent. (Liv.). 5 cent. (Dionys.). | ||
| Accensi, cornicines, tibicines, 3 cent. (Liv.), 2 cent. (Dionys.) (voting with 4th class, Dionys.). | |||
| Capite censi, 1 cent. | |||
| Total, 193 centuries (Dionys.), 194 (Liv.). | |||
THE CENSUS
| As interpreted by Mommsen,[290] who holds that the figures are given in asses sextantarii [i.e. asses of two ounces weight—⅙ of the libral as (the later sestertius)]. | As interpreted by Belot,[291] who holds that the figures are given in asses librales (later sestertii). | |||
| The older as (¼ denarius) | Later (circa 269 B.C.) equivalent to ⅒ 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.[292] 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.[293] If, however, we believe in the originally military character of the organisation, there seems no place for this class which is not already filled by the accensi and velati. At a later period the accensi became a more definite body, acting as assistants to the magistrates and forming a corporation with certain immunities,[294] and at this period the proletarii may have been recognised as the class liable to taxation, which fell below the minimum census. But they probably do not belong to the original Servian organisation.
The citizens included in the census list were collectively described as classici, and were spoken of as locupletes and assidui, the latter word probably meaning people “settled on land,” “landholders,” as most of those originally enrolled in the classes were.[295] The others were the children-begetting citizens (proletarii cives). The use of the census for purposes of taxation gave other names to this class. In contrast to the assidui, who were registered on their property, they were called capite censi as being registered on their caput or mere headship of a family; and further, when the incidence of taxation extended below the minimum census, they were spoken of as aerarii, because their participation in the burdens of the state was shown only by the payment of taxes (aes). The word aerarii seems always to have denoted those outside the census list.[296]
The cavalry was an adaptation of the old patrician corps of equites[297] to the new conditions. The six original centuries were preserved and consisted as before of Patricians;[298] they still bore the names of the ancient tribes, and were called respectively Titienses, Ramnes, Luceres, priores and posteriores.[299] They continued to be known as the sex centuriae, or (after the centuries acquired voting power) the sex suffragia.[300]
To these were added twelve new centuries (centuriae equitum), composed, like the classes, of Patricians and Plebeians. But, unlike the classes, they were not enrolled on a property qualification. This is explained by the fact that they are not a list of men qualified for service but actually in service, a standing corps selected by the king and whose expenses were largely defrayed by the state. In later times, each knight was on his entrance into the corps given the means wherewith to furnish himself with a pair of horses[301] (aes equestre), and also a regular sum of money for their support (aes hordearium), the latter money being defrayed by unmarried women and orphans, who were possessed of property but could not by the nature of the case be rated in the census.[302]
Each of these centuries formed a troop of one hundred men under a centurio,[303] and these eighteen centuries of Roman knights with public horses (equites Romani equo publico) continued unaltered in numbers and (with the exception that the sex suffragia ceased to be chosen from the Patricians) in character to the end of the Republic. Although no definite census was required for the class, it was probably chosen from the first from the richest and most distinguished citizens; for its permanent existence implies leisure. The class was not divided by age into seniores and juniores, for an obvious military reason. They were all juniores, and probably young men, whose release from the centuries was granted as soon as age had impaired their efficiency for service.
This centuriate organisation seems to have little or no connexion with the four Servian tribes,[304] beyond the accidental one that the basis of qualification was mainly land, and that all land which was private property was registered in the tribes. Its primary meaning was the assembly and registration of those liable for military service. It acquired a secondary meaning when (at what period we do not know but perhaps from its first organisation) it was used as a scheme for the collection of taxes on the registered wealth of the citizens in the classes. The act of registration (census) was a solemn religious function conducted by the king. He numbered his fighting force, saw that each warrior was in his due rank, excluded from these ranks men who were stained with sin, and then concluded the examination with a ceremony of purification (lustrum). It is only with reference to the collection of taxes imposed at this levy that the tribe would be of importance. The century was a military unit, dissolved as soon as the army was disbanded; the tribe was permanent, hence the war-tax (tributum) was perhaps collected from the first by the presidents of the tribes.[305]