Servius Tullius
historical figure · 2 works · 4 mentions · 6 anchored passages
Servius · Tullius · the Servian census/classes
in the texts
On the Commonwealth
Sixth king of Rome, of servile birth, who devised the centuriate assembly balancing wealth and voting power
But there follows one who, of all, seems to me to have seen most in the commonwealth.
Then, separating a great number of knights from the whole sum of the people, he distributed the remaining people into five classes, and divided the elder from the younger, and so arranged them that the votes should be in the power not of the multitude, but of the wealthy;
for whereas he called the wealthy assidui from giving the as, those who brought to their census either no more than fifteen hundred asses, or nothing at all beyond their own person, he named proletarii, so that from them, as it were, offspring—that is, as it were a progeny of the state—seemed to be expected.
Institutes of Roman Law
Roman king associated with a great epoch of legal and social reform, particularly concerning plebeian rights to hold and transfer property.
This change must have preceded or accompanied the great epoch of reform which is associated with the name of Servius Tullius.
If we believe that the Servian census was intended to create liability to service for Plebeians.
This seems shown by the continuance of the use of the word assidui for the members of the Servian Classes.