familiar _vectigal_, but for a time he adhered to the existing conditions of local collection, and in Sicily the tithes were sold in the island itself in accordance with the _lex Hieronica_.[1113] Asia was the first province to which the experiment of a collective sale of the taxes in Rome was applied.[1114] The system was apparently extended to the Asiatic provinces organised by Pompeius, and the censorship was the normal vehicle through which the revenues of a vast kingdom could be purchased by a company of Roman speculators. The censors exercised great discretionary powers in the conclusion of these contracts, but a revision of such as had already been concluded belonged not to them but to the Senate.[1115] Their merely executive capacity is an explanation of the fact that they could not alienate the property of the Roman people. Wherever the sale of public lands or buildings by these officials is described, we must assume the concurrence of the people or the Senate. The extent of the censors’ control of the property of the state made their registers (_tabulae_) assume the proportions of a budget, which must have been the guide of the state’s expenditure. Although only quinquennial, this budget was tolerably stable, for the varying returns (as opposed to the invariable revenues, such as the fixed tribute of some of the provinces) were estimated for the interval that elapsed between one _lustrum_ and another. An unusual increment, such as that from booty, which might appear in any year, would have formed the ground for a statement made by the quaestors, the permanent officials of the _aerarium_. But, although estimates were made by the censor, he had little to do with general expenditure. He had no concern with the provinces and the army, and was limited to the maintenance and extension of the public property of the state. He was either a maker or a repairer of _opera publica_, such as roads, aqueducts, temples, and public buildings.[1116] Such buildings or repairs were leased out to contractors, the state here becoming the debtor of a private company and seeking to obtain the lowest estimate for the work.[1117] For the purpose of repairs or new works a credit (_pecunia attributa_) was granted by the Senate, which directed the quaestors to employ this money at the discretion of the censors.[1118] Within the limits of this sum they could act at their own discretion with respect to the modes of expenditure, although they doubtless took the advice of the Senate. These grants and the purposes to which they were applied were known by the strange name of _ultro tributa_,[1119] a designation which may be a relic of a time when such _opera_ were not leased, but were burdens (_munera_, _moenia_), owed as a voluntary tribute by the community.[1120]