Census point

Latest revision as of 11:02, 6 August 2024

Census points (censualia puncta or CP) are a form of recognition or record of merit for serving the res publica of Nova Roma in elected or appointed offices and for length of citizenship. The role of these points is to determine the social status of each citizen in the Nova Roman society.

In ancient Rome, this role was assigned to money and wealth as Rome was a plutocracy, and social status was determined by wealth. The Roman expression for the citizen's wealth that determined the social status was census ("account"), and censum habere ("having the census of..." followed by the amount of money owned by the citizen), whence the term "census point" comes. In Nova Roma, social status is determined by public service and activity, by contribution to the society. This makes Nova Roma a "meritocracy".

How it works

The more census points a citizen has, the higher the class he is located in. There are 5 classes, the 1st class being the highest, and each class is further subdivided into centuries, which are voting blocks of the comitia centuriata, where each century casts one vote collectively; individual citizen votes are not counted. Citizens are thus first assigned to classes determined by the amount of their census points, and within the class each citizen is placed in a voting century. Being placed in a higher class century gives the citizen more voting weight, because higher class centuries contain less citizens, therefore each citizen's vote carries greater weight. Besides this, higher classes contain more centuries, therefore higher classes cast more votes collectively. This means that census points are a very important factor in Nova Roman civic life.

The number of census points awarded for holding certain public offices is determined by the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando, which now supersedes the lex Cornelia de punctis censualibus. The previous term used for the census points was "century point". Some parts of the website may still uses this older term. The older regulation of census point award was also described in the lex Fabia centuriata, used as a stop-gap during the repair of the Nova Roma database.

Categories of census points

The assessment of the census (the "wealth in Romanitas") of Nova Roman citizens is measured in merit points, given for contributions toward various aspects of Nova Roma as defined under the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando. Census points are divided into the categories of Service Points, Treasury Points, Status Points, Activity Points, Award Points and Cultural Points so that all relevant areas of civic life can be assessed and valued.

Census points are the easiest award to obtain and can be granted to a citizen for any number of contributions and achievements, including:

• Being elected into a magistracies,
• Appointed to a minor office, such as an apparitor,
• Holding office of recognized and Nova Roma state sponsored corporations,
• Obtaining a priesthood,
• Larger contributions to the Nova Roma state treasury,
• Achieving or holding academic qualifications in Roman subjects,
• Demonstrating Latin proficiency or formal qualifications,
• Winning Nova Roma competitions,
• Undertaking Roman or ancient reenactment,
• Completing designated significant Nova Roma projects, and
• Other various achievements defined by magistrates and the Senate.

Check your census point record

To check your Nova Roma service record, simply search for your Roman name in the Album Civium.

For a detailed breakdown of your census points, identify your Roman citizen ID number from your Album record and replace the final ID in the following URL:

• The Census Points for Cn. Cornelius Lentulus: http://www.novaroma.org/bin/cpoints?id=7694 - Change the '7694' with your citizen ID number to see your record.

Apply for census points

Census Points are not always automatically updated and need to be applied for. Individual citizens may request an update of their census points (service record) and magistrates may also request an update on behalf of citizens.

The Censorial Office has appointed D. Aurelius Ingeniarius, scriba censorius. to oversee census point updates. You may first lodge your update inquiry directlty to him. All general census point requests from citizens or magistrates may otherwise be emailed to novaromacensus@gmail.com with supporting evidence.

Supporting evidence often includes a link to the announcement(s) or edicta in the Forum Romanum, photos (for events or physical activities) or attestations from supervising magistrates.