to them the substance of authority though they would not relinquish the name; and in place of the consuls they named military tribunes in order that the honor of the title might not be sullied by contact with the vulgar throng.  It was agreed that three military tribunes be chosen from each of the classes in place of the two consuls.  However, the name of consul was not lost entirely, but sometimes consuls were appointed and at other times military tribunes.  This, at all events, is the tradition that has come down of what took place, with the additional detail that the consuls nominated dictators, though their own powers were far inferior to those appertaining to that office, and even that the military tribunes likewise did so sometimes.  It is further said that none of the military tribunes, though many of them won many victories, ever celebrated a triumph.

[Sidenote:  B.C. 447 (a.u. 307)] It was in this way, then, that military tribunes came to be chosen at that time:  censors were appointed in the following year, during the consulship of Barbatus and Marcus Macrinus.  Those chosen were Lucius Papirius and Lucius Sempronius.  The reason for their election was that the consuls were unable, on account of the number of the people, to supervise them all; the duties now assigned to the censors had until that time been performed by the consuls as a part of their prerogatives.  Two was the original number of the censors and they were taken from the patricians.  They held office at first and at the last for five-year periods, but during the intervening time for three half-years; and they came to be greater than the consuls, though they had taken over only a part of their functions.  They had the right to let the public revenues, to supervise roads and public buildings, to make complete records of each man’s wealth, and to note and investigate the lives of the citizens, enrolling those deserving of praise in the tribes, in the equestrian order, or in the senate (as seemed to fit the case of each one), and similarly erasing from any class the names of those who were not right livers:  this power was greater than all those now left to the consuls.  They made declarations attested by oath, in regard to every one of their acts, that no such act was prompted by favor or by enmity but that their considerations and performances were both the result of an unbiased opinion of what was advantageous for the commonwealth.  They convened the people when laws were to be introduced and for other purposes, and employed all the insignia of the greater offices save lictors.  Such, at its inception, was the office of the censors.  If any persons did not register their property and themselves in the census lists, the censors sold the property and the consuls the men.  This arrangement held for a certain time, but later it was determined that a man once enrolled in the senate should be a senator for life and that his name should not be erased, unless one had been disgraced by being tried for the commission of a crime or was convicted of leading an evil life:  the names of such persons were erased and others inscribed in their stead.