Editing Roman censor (section)

==Attributes==
The censorship differed from all other Roman magistracies in the length of office. The censors were originally chosen for a whole ''lustrum'' (a period of five years), but as early as ten years after its institution (433 BC) their office was limited to eighteen months by a law of [[Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus|Dictator Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus]].<ref name="auto"/> The censors were also unique with respect to rank and dignity. They had no ''[[imperium]]'', and accordingly no [[lictor]]s.<ref>''Zonar''. vii.19.</ref> Their rank was granted to them by the [[Centuriate assembly|Centuriate Assembly]], and not by the ''[[curia]]e'', and in that respect they were inferior in power to the consuls and praetors.<ref>[[Cicero]], ''de Lege Agraria'' ii.11.</ref>

Notwithstanding this, the censorship was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the [[Roman dictator|dictatorship]]; it was a "sacred magistracy" (''sanctus magistratus''), to which the deepest reverence was due.<ref>Plutarch ''[[Life of Cato the Elder]]'' 16, ''[[Life of Flaminius]]'' 18, ''[[Life of Camillus]]'' 2, 14, ''[[Life of Aemilius]]'' 38; Cicero ''[[ad Familiares]]'' iii.10.</ref> The high rank and dignity which the censorship obtained was due to the various important duties gradually entrusted to it, and especially to its possessing the ''regimen morum'', or general control over the conduct and the morals of the citizens. In the exercise of this power, they were regulated solely by their own views of duty, and were not responsible to any other power in the state.<ref>Dionys. in ''Mai, Nova Coll.'' vol. ii p516; Livy iv.24, xxix.37; Valerius Maximus vii.2 §6.</ref>

The censors possessed the official stool called a "[[curule chair]]" (''sella curulis''),<ref>Livy xl.45.</ref> but some doubt exists with respect to their official dress. A well-known passage of Polybius<ref>vi.53.</ref> describes the use of the ''imagines'' at funerals; we may conclude that a consul or praetor wore the purple-bordered ''[[toga praetexta]]'', one who triumphed the embroidered ''[[toga picta]]'', and the censor a purple toga peculiar to him, but other writers speak of their official dress as being the same as that of the other higher magistrates.<ref>Zonar. vii.19; Athen. xiv. p660c.</ref> The funeral of a censor was always conducted with great pomp and splendour, and hence a "censorial funeral" (''funus censorium'') was voted even to the emperors.<ref>[[Tacitus]] ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annales]]'' iv.15, xiii.2.</ref>