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Luke Yakuber

Professor Thomson

History 134

2 April 2017

A Roman Censor

I am a Roman Censor, one of the highest government officials of Rome. I am a middle

aged man, and lived in Rome my entire life. My name is Gaius Marcius Rutilus and I have held

my position since 351 B.C. I share this position with another man, as the Roman government is

set up to have to Censors. King Servius Tullius was the first king to put a Censor into the

monarchy of Rome. Although I seem to hold a powerful position, I am inferior in power to the

consuls and praetors. I have many responsibilities and duties on a day to day basis that help the

Roman government operate in a smooth and efficient way.

My basic job description is to maintain the census, supervise the morality of the people,

and to oversee the finances of the government. The census is a time where I have to register the

citizens of Rome and the property that they hold. Included in this job was to read the Senates list

and recognize those who qualified for equestrian rank. The equestrian is basically a knight and is

part of the lower two classes of the aristocratic classes of Rome. Often people do not want my

job because of my need to be the judge in the public morality section of life. My position

requires me to maintain the Roman character, ethics, and habits in all of the people. Depending

on the different crimes that were done I would have different punishments that I would permit

because of the crime done. The four main punishments that I go with are the exclusion of a man

to be a senator, taking away the horse of an equestrian, exclusion of a man from his tribe, or a
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combination of them all. Lastly, another thing that I take care of for the Roman Monarchy is to

handle financial aspects. The main thing that this includes is the property tax collection of the

citizens. I also handle the governments expenditures but I am somewhat restricted by the

senators. These are the main job functions that I hold as Censor. Everyday this job demands my

time and I. The Etruscans had a heavy influence on who, we, Romans are. The culture and

aspects have great influence on who we are as a society today. We have even had many different

Etruscan kings that have ruled us, the Romans.