39.44
In the
revision of the register of the equites L. Scipio Asiagenes was struck out. In
fixing the assessments the censorship was severe and harsh on all classes.
Orders were issued that an account should be taken on oath of all female
dress, ornaments and carriages which were valued at more than 15,000 ases,
and that they should be assessed at ten times their value. Similarly, slaves
less than twenty years old who had been sold since the last lustrum for
10,000 ases or more were to be assessed at ten times that amount, and on all
these assessments a tax was imposed of one-third per cent. The censors cut
off from the public aqueducts all supplies of water for private houses or land,
and wherever private owners had built up against public buildings or on
public ground, they demolished these structures within thirty days. They next
made contracts for lining the reservoirs with stone and, where it was
necessary, cleaning out the sewers, money having been set apart for the
purpose, and also for the construction of sewers in the Aventine quarter and
in other places where as yet there were none. Flaccus constructed a raised
causeway at the Fountain of Neptune to serve as a public road and also a
road along the Formian Hill. Cato purchased for the State two auction halls
in the Lautumiae, the Maenium and the Titium, as well as four shops, and on
the site he built a basilica, known afterwards as the Porcian. They farmed the
taxes to the highest bidders, and let out the contracts to the lowest tenders.
The senate, yielding to the prayers and lamentations of the tax-farmers,
annulled these arrangements and ordered fresh terms to be made. The
censors gave public notice that those who had treated the former contracts
with contempt should not be allowed to make fresh bids. They signed fresh
contracts for everything on slightly easier terms. This censorship was
noteworthy for the feuds and quarrels it gave rise to, and for which Cato
through his severity was held responsible; feuds which made his life a stormy
one to the end. Two colonies were founded this year, one at Potentia in the
Picene district, the other at Pisaurum in the land of the Gauls. Six jugera
were allotted to each colonist; the commissioners who supervised the
settlement were Q. Fabius Labeo, M. Fulvius Flaccus and Q. Fulvius
Nobilior. The consuls for this year did nothing worth recording.
