f the arbitrary
assignment of burdens or duties. Varro defines _census_ as _arbitrium_,
and derives the name _censores_ from the position of these magistrates
as _arbitri populi_ (Varro, _de Ling. Lat._ v. 81; _ap._ Non. p. 519).
This original idea of "discretionary power" was never entirely lost;
although ultimately it came to be more intimately associated with the
appreciation of morals than with the assignment of burdens. From the
point of view of its moral significance the censorship was the Roman
manifestation of that state control of conduct which was a not unusual
feature of ancient societies. It is true that Rome possessed sumptuary
laws, and laws dealing with moral offences, which it was the duty of
other magistrates to enforce; but the organization for the control of
conduct was mainly exhibited in the censorship, and, as thus exhibited,
was at once simple and comprehensive.

The censorship was believed to have been instituted in 443 B.C. to
relieve the consuls of the duties of registration. Since the periods of
registration were quinquennial, it was not a continuous office; but its
tenure does not seem to have been fixed until 434 B.C., when a _lex
Aemilia_ provided that the censors should hold office for eighteen
months. This magistracy was at first confined to patricians; a plebeian
censor is first mentioned in 351 B.C. A _lex Publilia_ of 339 B.C. is
said to have enacted that one censor must be a plebeian. Two plebeian
censors were for the first time elected in 131 B.C. The election always
took place in the Comitia Centuriata (see COMITIA). The censorship,
although lacking the powers implied in the imperium and the right of
summoning the senate and the people, was not only one of the higher
magistracies, but was regarded as the crown of a political career. It
was an irresponsible office; and the only limitations on its powers were
created by the restriction of tenure to a year and a half, the fact that
re-election was forbidden, and the restraint imposed on each censor by
the fact that no act of his was valid without the assent of his
colleague.

The original functions of the censors were (1) the registration of
citizens in the state-divisions, such as tribes and centuries; (2) the
taxation of such citizens based on an estimate of their property; (3)
the right of exclusion from public functions on moral grounds, known as
the _regimen morum_; (4) the solemn act of purification (_lustrum_)
which closed the