A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

CELLA, in its primary sense, means a store-room of any kind. Of these there were various descriptions, which took their distinguishing denominations from the articles they contained, as, for instance, the cella penuaria or penaria, the cella olearia and cella vinaria. The slave to whom the charge of these stores was intrusted, was called cellarius, or promus, or condus, “quia promit quod conditum est,” and sometimes promus condus and procurator peni. This answers to our butler and housekeeper. Any number of small rooms clustered together like the cells of a honeycomb were also termed cellae; hence the dormitories of slaves and menials are called cellae, and cellae familiaricae, in distinction to a bed-chamber, which was cubiculum. Thus a sleeping-room at a public-house is also termed cella. Cella ostiarii, or janitoris, is the porter’s lodge. In the baths the cella caldaria, tepidaria, and frigidaria, were those which contained respectively the warm, tepid, and cold bath. [[Balneae].] The interior of a temple, that is the part included within the outside shell (σηκός), was also called cella. There was sometimes more than one cella within the same peristyle or under the same roof, in which case each cell took the name of the deity whose statue it contained, as cella Jovis, cella Junonis, cella Minervae, as in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline.

CĔNOTĂPHĬUM, a cenotaph (κενός and τάφος), was an empty or honorary tomb, erected as a memorial of a person whose body was buried elsewhere, or not found for burial at all.

CENSOR (τιμητής), the name of two magistrates of high rank in the Roman republic. Their office was called Censura (τιμητεία or τιμητία). The Census, which was a register of Roman citizens and of their property, was first established by Servius Tullius, the fifth king of Rome. After the expulsion of the kings it was taken by the consuls; and special magistrates were not appointed for the purpose of taking it till the year B.C. 443. The reason of this alteration was owing to the appointment in the preceding year of tribuni militum with consular power in place of the consuls; and as these tribunes might be plebeians, the patricians deprived the consuls, and consequently their representatives, the tribunes, of the right of taking the census, and entrusted it to two magistrates, called Censores, who were to be chosen exclusively from the patricians. The magistracy continued to be a patrician one till B.C. 351, when C. Marcius Rutilus was the first plebeian censor. Twelve years afterwards, B.C. 339, it was provided by one of the Publilian laws, that one of the censors must necessarily be a plebeian, but it was not till B.C. 280 that a plebeian censor performed the solemn purification of the people (lustrum condidit). In B.C. 131 the two censors were for the first time plebeians.—The censors were elected in the comitia centuriata held under the presidency of a consul. As a general principle, the only persons eligible to the office were those who had previously been consuls; but a few exceptions occur. At first there was no law to prevent a person being censor a second time; but the only person, who was twice elected to the office, was C. Marcius Rutilus in B.C. 265; and he brought forward a law in this year, enacting that no one should be chosen censor a second time, and received in consequence the surname of Censorinus.—The censorship is distinguished from all other Roman magistracies by the length of time during which it was held. The censors were originally chosen for a whole lustrum, that is, a period of five years; but their office was limited to eighteen months, as early as ten years after its institution (B.C. 433), by a law of the dictator Mam. Aemilius Mamercinus. The censors also held a very peculiar position with respect to rank and dignity. No imperium was bestowed upon them, and accordingly they had no lictors. The jus censurae was granted to them by a lex centuriata, and not by the curiae, and in that respect they were inferior in power to the consuls and praetors. But notwithstanding this, the censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the dictatorship; it was a sanctus magistratus, to which the deepest reverence was due. They possessed of course the sella curulis. The funeral of a censor was always conducted with great pomp and splendour, and hence a funus censorium was voted even to the emperors.—The censorship continued in existence for 421 years, namely, from B.C. 443 to B.C. 22; but during this period many lustra passed by without any censor being chosen at all. Its power was limited by one of the laws of the tribune Clodius (B.C. 58). After the year B.C. 22 the emperors discharged the duties of the censorship under the name of Praefectura Morum.—The duties of the censors may be divided into three classes, all of which were however closely connected with one another: I. The Census, or register of the citizens and of their property, in which were included the lectio senatus, and the recognitio equitum; II. The Regimen Morum; and III. The administration of the finances of the state, under which were classed the superintendence of the public buildings and the erection of all new public works.—I. The [Census], the first and principal duty of the censors, for which the proper expression is censum agere, was always held in the Campus Martius, and from the year B.C. 435 in a special building called Villa Publica. After the auspicia had been taken, the citizens were summoned by a public crier (praeco) to appear before the censors. Each tribe was called up separately, and every paterfamilias had to appear in person before the censors, who were seated in their curule chairs. The census was conducted ad arbitrium censoris; but the censors laid down certain rules, sometimes called leges censui censendo, in which mention was made of the different kinds of property subject to the census, and in what way their value was to be estimated. According to these laws each citizen had to give an account of himself, of his family, and of his property upon oath, ex animi sententia. First he had to give his full name (praenomen, nomen, and cognomen) and that of his father, or if he were a freedman that of his patron, and he was likewise obliged to state his age. He was then asked, Tu, ex animi tui sententia, uxorem habes? and if married he had to give the name of his wife, and likewise the number, names, and ages of his children, if any. Single women (viduae) and orphans (orbi orbaeque) were represented by their tutores; their names were entered in separate lists, and they were not included in the sum total of capita. After a citizen had stated his name, age, family, &c., he then had to give an account of all his property, so far as it was subject to the census. In making this statement he was said censere or censeri, as a deponent, “to value or estimate himself,” or as a passive “to be valued or estimated:” the censor, who received the statement, was also said censere, as well as accipere censum. Only such things were liable to the census (censui censendo) as were property ex jure Quiritium. Land formed the most important article in the census; next came slaves and cattle. The censors also possessed the right of calling for a return of such objects as had not usually been given in, such as clothing, jewels, and carriages. We can hardly doubt that the censors possessed the power of setting a higher valuation on the property than the citizens themselves had put. The tax (tributum) was usually one per thousand upon the property entered in the books of the censors; but on one occasion the censors, as a punishment, compelled a person to pay eight per thousand (octuplicato censu, Liv. iv. 24). A person who voluntarily absented himself from the census, and thus became incensus, was subject to the severest punishment. It is probable that service in the army was a valid excuse for absence. After the censors had received the names of all the citizens with the amount of their property, they then had to make out the lists of the tribes, and also of the classes and centuries; for by the legislation of Servius Tullius the position of each citizen in the state was determined by the amount of his property. [[Comitia Centuriata].] These lists formed a most important part of the Tabulae Censoriae, under which name were included all the documents connected in any way with the discharge of the censors’ duties. These lists, as far at least as they were connected with the finances of the state, were deposited in the aerarium, which was the temple of Saturn; but the regular depository for all the archives of the censors was in earlier times the Atrium Libertatis, near the Villa publica, and in later times the temple of the Nymphs. The censors had also to make out the lists of the senators for the ensuing lustrum, or till new censors were appointed; striking out the names of such as they considered unworthy, and making additions to the body from those who were qualified. [[Senatus].] In the same manner they held a review of the equites equo publico, and added and removed names as they judged proper. [[Equites].] After the lists had been completed, the number of citizens was counted up, and the sum total announced; and accordingly we find that, in the account of a census, the number of citizens is likewise usually given. They are in such cases spoken of as capita, sometimes with the addition of the word civium, and sometimes not; and hence to be registered in the census was the same thing as caput habere. [[Caput].]—II. Regimen Morum. This was the most important branch of the censors’ duties, and the one which caused their office to be the most revered and the most dreaded in the Roman state. It naturally grew out of the right which they possessed of excluding unworthy persons from the lists of citizens. They were constituted the conservators of public and private virtue and morality; they were not simply to prevent crime or particular acts of immorality, but their great object was to maintain the old Roman character and habits, the mos majorum. The proper expression for this branch of their power was regimen morum, which was called in the times of the empire cura or praefectura morum. The punishment inflicted by the censors in the exercise of this branch of their duties was called Nota or Notatio, or Animadversio Censoria. In inflicting it they were guided only by their conscientious convictions of duty; they had to take an oath that they would act neither through partiality nor favour; and in addition to this, they were bound in every case to state in their lists, opposite the name of the guilty citizen, the cause of the punishment inflicted on him,—Subscriptio censoria. The consequence of such a nota was only ignominia and not infamia [[Infamia]], and the censorial verdict was not a judicium or res judicata, for its effects were not lasting, but might be removed by the following censors, or by a lex. A nota censoria was moreover not valid, unless both censors agreed. The ignominia was thus only a transitory capitis deminutio, which does not appear even to have deprived a magistrate of his office, and certainly did not disqualify persons labouring under it for obtaining a magistracy, for being appointed as judices by the praetor, or for serving in the Roman armies. This superintendence of the conduct of Roman citizens extended so far, that it embraced the whole of the public and private life of the citizens. Thus we have instances of their censuring or punishing persons for not marrying, for breaking a promise of marriage, for divorce, for bad conduct during marriage, for improper education of children, for living in an extravagant and luxurious manner, and for many other irregularities in private life. Their influence was still more powerful in matters connected with the public life of the citizens. Thus we find them censuring or punishing magistrates who were forgetful of the dignity of their office or guilty of bribery, as well as persons who were guilty of improper conduct towards magistrates, of perjury, and of neglect of their duties both in civil and military life. The punishments inflicted by the censors are generally divided into four classes:—1. Motio or ejectio e senatu, or the exclusion of a man from the number of senators. This punishment might either be a simple exclusion from the list of senators, or the person might at the same time be excluded from the tribes and degraded to the rank of an aerarian. The censors in their new lists omitted the names of such senators as they wished to exclude, and in reading these new lists in public, passed over the names of those who were no longer to be senators. Hence the expression praeteriti senatores is equivalent to e senatu ejecti. 2. The ademptio equi, or the taking away the equus publicus from an eques. This punishment might likewise be simple, or combined with the exclusion from the tribes and the degradation to the rank of an aerarian. [[Equites].] 3. The motio e tribu, or the exclusion of a person from his tribe. If the further degradation to the rank of an aerarian was combined with the motio e tribu, it was always expressly stated. 4. The fourth punishment was called referre in aerarios or facere aliquem aerarium, and might be inflicted on any person who was thought by the censors to deserve it. [[Aerarii].]—III. The Administration of the Finances of the State, was another part of the censors’ office. In the first place the tributum, or property-tax, had to be paid by each citizen according to the amount of his property registered in the census, and, accordingly, the regulation of this tax naturally fell under the jurisdiction of the censors. [[Tributum].] They also had the superintendence of all the other revenues of the state, the vectigalia, such as the tithes paid for the public lands, the salt-works, the mines, the customs, &c. [[Vectigalia].] All these branches of the revenue the censors were accustomed to let out to the highest bidder for the space of a lustrum or five years. The act of letting was called venditio or locatio, and seems to have taken place in the month of March. The censors also possessed the right, though probably not without the concurrence of the senate, of imposing new vectigalia, and even of selling the land belonging to the state. The censors, however, did not receive the revenues of the state. All the public money was paid into the aerarium, which was entirely under the jurisdiction of the senate; and all disbursements were made by order of this body, which employed the quaestors as its officers. [[Aerarium]; [Senatus].]—In one important department the censors were entrusted with the expenditure of the public money; though the actual payments were no doubt made by the quaestors. The censors had the general superintendence of all the public buildings and works (opera publica); and to meet the expenses connected with this part of their duties, the senate voted them a certain sum of money or certain revenues, to which they were restricted, but which they might at the same time employ according to their discretion. They had to see that the temples and all other public buildings were in a good state of repair (aedes sacras tueri and sarta tecta exigere), that no public places were encroached upon by the occupation of private persons (loca tueri), and that the aquaeducts, roads, drains, &c. were properly attended to. The repairs of the public works and the keeping of them in proper condition were let out by the censors by public auction to the lowest bidder. The persons who undertook the contract were called conductores, mancipes, redemptores, susceptores, &c.; and the duties they had to discharge were specified in the Leges Censoriae. The censors had also to superintend the expenses connected with the worship of the gods. In these respects it is not easy to define with accuracy the respective duties of the censors and aediles: but it may be remarked in general that the superintendence of the aediles had more of a police character, while that of the censors had reference to all financial matters.—After the censors had performed their various duties and taken the census, the lustrum or solemn purification of the people followed. When the censors entered upon their office, they drew lots to see which of them should perform this purification (lustrum facere or condere), but both censors were obliged of course to be present at the ceremony. [[Lustrum].]—In the Roman and Latin colonies and in the municipia there were censors, who likewise bore the name of quinquennales. They are spoken of under [Colonia]. A census was sometimes taken in the provinces, even under the republic; but there seems to have been no general census taken in the provinces till the time of Augustus. At Rome the census still continued to be taken under the empire, but the old ceremonies connected with it were no longer continued, and the ceremony of the lustration was not performed after the time of Vespasian.—The word census, besides the meaning of “valuation” of a person’s estate, has other significations, which must be briefly mentioned: 1. It signified the amount of a person’s property, and hence we read of census senatorius, the estate of a senator; census equestris, the estate of an eques. 2. The lists of the censors. 3. The tax which depended upon the valuation in the census.

CENSUS.—(1) Greek.—The Greek term for a man’s property as ascertained by the census, as well as for the act of ascertaining it, is τίμημα. The only Greek state concerning whose arrangement of the census we have any satisfactory information, is Athens. Previous to the time of Solon no census had been instituted at Athens. According to his census, all citizens were divided into four classes: 1. Pentacosiomedimni (Πεντακοσιομέδιμνοι), or persons possessing landed property which yielded an annual income of at least 500 medimni of dry or liquid produce. 2. Hippeis (Ἱππεῖς), i.e. knights or persons able to keep a war-horse, were those whose lands yielded an annual produce of at least 300 medimni, whence they are also called τριακοσιομέδιμνοι. 3. Zeugitae (Ζευγῖται), i.e. persons able to keep a yoke of oxen (ζεῦγος), were those whose annual income consisted of at least 150 medimni. 4. The Thetes (Θῆτες) contained all the rest of the free population, whose income was below that of the Zeugitae. The constitution of Athens, so long as it was based upon these classes, was a timocracy (τιμοκρατία, or ἀπὸ τιμημάτων πολιτεία). The highest magistracy at Athens, or the archonship, was at first accessible only to persons of the first class, until Aristides threw all the state offices open to all classes indiscriminately. The maintenance of the republic mainly devolved upon the first three classes, the last being exempted from all taxes. As the land in the legislation of Solon was regarded as the capital which yielded an annual income, he regulated his system of taxation by the value of the land, which was treated as the taxable capital. Lists of this taxable property (ἀπογραφαί) were kept at first by the naucrari, who also had to conduct the census, and afterwards by the demarchi.—As property is a fluctuating thing, the census was repeated from time to time, but the periods differed in the various parts of Greece, for in some a census was held every year, and in others every two or four years. At Athens every person had to state the amount of his property, and if there was any doubt about his honesty, it seems that a counter-valuation (ἀντιτίμησις) might be made. This system of taxation according to classes, and based upon the possession of productive estates, underwent a considerable change in the time of the Peloponnesian war, though the divisions into classes themselves continued to be observed for a considerable time after. As the wants of the republic increased, and as many citizens were possessed of large property, without being landed proprietors, the original land-tax was changed into a property-tax. This property-tax was called εἰσφορά, concerning which see [Eisphora]. Compare [Leiturgiae]; and for the taxes paid by resident aliens, [Metoici].—(2) Roman. [[Censor].]

CENTESĬMA, namely pars, or the hundredth part, also called vectigal rerum venalium, or centesima rerum venalium, was a tax of one per cent. levied at Rome and in Italy upon all goods that were exposed for public sale at auctions. It was collected by persons called coactores. This tax was perhaps introduced after the civil war between Marius and Sulla. Its produce was assigned by Augustus to the aerarium militare. Tiberius reduced the tax to one half per cent. (ducentesima), after he had changed Cappadocia into a province, and had thereby increased the revenue of the empire. Caligula in the beginning of his reign abolished the tax altogether for Italy.

CENTUMVĬRI, were judices, who resembled other judices in this respect, that they decided cases under the authority of a magistratus; but they differed from other judices in being a definite body or collegium. This collegium seems to have been divided into four parts, each of which sometimes sat by itself. The origin of the court is unknown. According to an ancient writer, three were chosen out of each tribe, and consequently the whole number out of the 35 tribes would be 105, who, in round numbers, were called the hundred men. If the centumviri were chosen from the tribes, this seems a strong presumption in favour of the high antiquity of the court. It was the practice to set up a spear in the place where the centumviri were sitting, and accordingly the word hasta, or hasta centumviralis, is sometimes used as equivalent to the words judicium centumvirale. The praetor presided in this court. The jurisdiction of the centumviri was chiefly confined to civil matters, but it appears that crimina sometimes came under their cognizance. The younger Pliny, who practised in this court, makes frequent allusions to it in his letters.

CENTŬRĬA. [[Exercitus]; [Comitia].]

CENTŬRĬĀTA CŎMĪTĬA. [[Comitia].]

CENTŬRĬO. [[Exercitus].]

CENTUSSIS. [As.]