aerarios_ or _facere aliquem aerarium_, and might be inflicted on any person who was thought by the censors to deserve it. [AERARII.]--III. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE FINANCES OF THE STATE, was another part of the censors’ office. In the first place the _tributum_, or property-tax, had to be paid by each citizen according to the amount of his property registered in the census, and, accordingly, the regulation of this tax naturally fell under the jurisdiction of the censors. [TRIBUTUM.] They also had the superintendence of all the other revenues of the state, the _vectigalia_, such as the tithes paid for the public lands, the salt-works, the mines, the customs, &c. [VECTIGALIA.] All these branches of the revenue the censors were accustomed to let out to the highest bidder for the space of a lustrum or five years. The act of letting was called _venditio_ or _locatio_, and seems to have taken place in the month of March. The censors also possessed the right, though probably not without the concurrence of the senate, of imposing new vectigalia, and even of selling the land belonging to the state. The censors, however, did not receive the revenues of the state. All the public money was paid into the aerarium, which was entirely under the jurisdiction of the senate; and all disbursements were made by order of this body, which employed the quaestors as its officers. [AERARIUM; SENATUS.]--In one important department the censors were entrusted with the expenditure of the public money; though the actual payments were no doubt made by the quaestors. The censors had the general superintendence of all the public buildings and works (_opera publica_); and to meet the expenses connected with this part of their duties, the senate voted them a certain sum of money or certain revenues, to which they were restricted, but which they might at the same time employ according to their discretion. They had to see that the temples and all other public buildings were in a good state of repair (_aedes sacras tueri_ and _sarta tecta exigere_), that no public places were encroached upon by the occupation of private persons (_loca tueri_), and that the aquaeducts, roads, drains, &c. were properly attended to. The repairs of the public works and the keeping of them in proper condition were let out by the censors by public auction to the lowest bidder. The persons who undertook the contract were called _conductores_, _mancipes_, _redemptores_, _susceptores_, &c.; and the duties they had to discharge were specified in the _Leges Censoriae_. The censors had also to superintend the expenses connected with the worship of the gods. In these respects it is not easy to define with accuracy the respective duties of the censors and aediles: but it may be remarked in general that the superintendence of the aediles had more of a police character, while that of the censors had reference to all financial matters.--After the censors had performed