They had the same ensigns as the consuls, except the _lictors_, and were chosen every five years, but continued in office only a year and a half. When any of the senators or equites committed a dishonorable action, the censors could erase the name of the former from the list, and deprive the knight of his horse and ring; any other citizen, they degraded or deprived of all the privileges of a Roman citizen, except liberty. As the sentence of censors (_Animadversio Censoria_,) only affected a person's character, it was therefore properly called _Ignominia_. Yet even this was not unchangeable; the people or next censors might reverse it. In addition to the revision of morals, censors had the charge of paving the streets--making roads, bridges, and aqueducts--preventing private persons from occupying public property--and frequently of imposing taxes. A census was taken by these officers, every five years, of the number of the people, the amount of their fortunes, the number of slaves, &c. After this census had been taken, a sacrifice was made of a sow, a sheep, and a bull--hence called _suove-taurilia_. As this took place only every five years, that space of time was called a _lustrum_, because the sacrifice was a lustration offered for all the people; and therefore _condere lustrum_, means to finish the census. The title of censor was esteemed more honorable than that of consul, although attended by less power: no one could be elected a second time, and they who filled it were remarkable for leading an irreproachable life; so that it was considered the chief ornament of nobility to be sprung from a censorian family. The appointment of tribunes of the people, may be attributed to the following cause; the Plebeians being oppressed by the Patricians, on account of debt, made a secession to a mountain afterwards called _mons sacer_, three miles from Rome, nor could they be prevailed on to return, till they obtained from the Patricians a remission of debts for those who were insolvent, and liberty to such as had been given up to serve their creditors: and likewise that the Plebeians should have proper magistrates of their own, to protect their rights, whose person should be sacred and inviolable. They were at first five in number, but afterwards increased to ten; they had no external mark of dignity, except a kind of beadle, called _viator_, who went before them. The word _veto_, I forbid it, was at first the extent of their power; but it afterwards increased to such a degree, that under pretence of defending the rights of the people, they did almost whatever they pleased. If any one hurt a tribune in word or deed, he was held accursed, and his property confiscated.