Cenīna. See: [Cænina].
Cenon, a town of Italy. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 63.
Censōres, two magistrates of great authority at Rome, first created B.C. 443. Their office was to number the people, estimate the possessions of every citizen, reform and watch over the manners of the people, and regulate the taxes. Their power was also extended over private families; they punished irregularity, and inspected the management and education of the Roman youth. They could inquire into the expenses of every citizen, and even degrade a senator from all his privileges and honours, if guilty of any extravagance. This punishment was generally executed in passing over the offender’s name in calling the list of the senators. The office of public censor was originally exercised by the kings. Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, first established a census, by which every man was obliged to come to be registered, and give in writing the place of his residence, his name, his quality, the number of his children, of his tenants, estates, and domestics, &c. The ends of the census were very salutary to the Roman republic. They knew their own strength, their ability to support a war, or to make a levy of troops, or raise a tribute. It was required that every knight should be possessed of 400,000 sesterces to enjoy the rights and privileges of his order; and a senator was entitled to sit in the senate, if he was really worth 800,000 sesterces. This laborious task of numbering and reviewing the people was, after the expulsion of the Tarquins, one of the duties and privileges of the consuls. But when the republic was become more powerful, and when the number of its citizens was increased, the consuls were found unable to make the census, on account of the multiplicity of business. After it had been neglected for 16 years, two new magistrates called censors were elected. They remained in office for five years, and every fifth year they made a census of all the citizens in the Campus Martius, and offered a solemn sacrifice, and made a lustration in the name of all the Roman people. This space of time was called a lustrum, and 10 or 20 years were commonly expressed by two or four lustra. After the office of the censors had remained for some time unaltered, the Romans, jealous of their power, abridged the duration of their office, and a law was made, A.U.C. 420, by Mamercus Æmilius, to limit the time of the censorship to 18 months. After the second Punic war, they were always chosen from such persons as had been consuls; their office was more honourable, though less powerful, than that of the consuls; the badges of their office were the same, but the censors were not allowed to have lictors to walk before them as the consuls. When one of the censors died, no one was elected in his room till the five years were expired, and his colleague immediately resigned. This circumstance originated from the death of a censor before the sacking of Rome by Brennus, and was ever deemed an unfortunate event to the republic. The emperors abolished the censors, and took upon themselves to execute their office.
Censorīnus, Appius Claudius, was compelled, after many services to the state, to assume the imperial purple by the soldiers, by whom he was murdered some days after, A.D. 270.——Martius, a consul, to whom, as a particular friend, Horace addressed his bk. 4, ode 8.——A grammarian of the third century, whose book, De Die Natali, is extant, best edited in 8vo, by Havercamp, Leiden, 1767. It treats of the birth of man, of years, months, and days.
Census, the numbering of the people at Rome, performed by the censors; à censeo, to value. See: [Censores].——A god worshipped at Rome, the same as Consus.
Centaretus, a Galatian, who, when Antiochus was killed, mounted his horse in the greatest exultation. The horse, as if conscious of disgrace, immediately leaped down a precipice, and killed himself and his rider. Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 42.
Centaurī, a people of Thessaly, half men and half horses. They were the offspring of Centaurus son of Apollo, by Stilbia daughter of the Peneus. According to some, the Centaurs were the fruit of Ixion’s adventure with the cloud in the shape of Juno, or, as others assert, of the union of Centaurus with the mares of Magnesia. This fable of the existence of the Centaurs, monsters supported upon the four legs of a horse, arises from the ancient people of Thessaly having tamed horses, and having appeared to their neighbours mounted on horseback, a sight very uncommon at that time, and which, when at a distance, seems only one body, and consequently one creature. Some derive the name ἀπο του κεντειν ταυρους, goading bulls, because they went on horseback after their bulls which had strayed, or because they hunted wild bulls with horses. Some of the ancients have maintained that monsters like the Centaurs can have existed in the natural course of things. Plutarch, Convivium Septem Sapientium mentions one seen by Periander tyrant of Corinth; and Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 3, says that he saw one embalmed in honey, which had been brought to Rome from Egypt in the reign of Claudius. The battle of the Centaurs with the Lapithæ is famous in history. Ovid has elegantly described it, and it has also employed the pen of [♦]Hesiod, Valerius Flaccus, &c.; and Pausanias in Elis says it was represented in the temple of Jupiter at Olympia, and also at Athens by Phidias and Parrhasius, according to Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 5. The origin of the battle was a quarrel at the marriage of Hippodamia with Pirithous, where the Centaurs, intoxicated with wine, behaved with rudeness, and even offered violence to the women that were present. Such an insult irritated Hercules, Theseus, and the rest of the Lapithæ, who defended the women, wounded and defeated the Centaurs, and obliged them to leave their country, and retire to Arcadia. Here their insolence was a second time punished by Hercules, who, when he was going to hunt the boar of Erymanthus, was kindly entertained by the Centaur Pholus, who gave him wine which belonged to the rest of the Centaurs, but had been given them on condition of their treating Hercules with it whenever he passed through their territory. They resented the liberty which Hercules took with their wine, and attacked him with uncommon fury. The hero defended himself with his arrows, and defeated his adversaries, who fled for safety to the Centaur Chiron. Chiron had been the preceptor of Hercules, and therefore they hoped that he would desist in his presence. Hercules, though awed at the sight of Chiron, did not desist, but in the midst of the engagement, he wounded his preceptor in the knee, who, in the excessive pain he suffered, exchanged immortality for death. The death of Chiron irritated Hercules the more, and the Centaurs that were present were all extirpated by his hand, and indeed few escaped the common destruction. The most celebrated of the Centaurs were Chiron, Eurytus, Amycus, Gryneus, Caumas, Lycidas, Arneus, Medon, Rhœtus, Pisenor, Mermeros, Pholus, &c. Diodorus, bk. 4.—Tzetzes, Historiarum variarum Chiliades, bk. 9, ch. 237.—Hesiod, Shield of Heracles.—Homer, Iliad & Odyssey.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12.—Strabo, bk. 9.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 10, &c.—Ælian, Varia Historia, bk. 11, ch. 2.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 5.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 286.—Hyginus, fables 33 & 62.—Pindar, Pythian, li. 2.
[♦] ‘Hesoid’ replaced with ‘Hesiod’
Centaurus, a ship in the fleet of Æneas, which had the figure of a Centaur. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 5, li. 122.
Centobrica, a town of Celtiberia. Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 1.