Talk:Census MMDCCLXIV

I. Nova Roma will be conducting its census of citizens from May 17th to October 20th, 2764 a.U.c (2011) following the schedule:

• 17 May : starting of the Census 2764
• 19 July: suspension of the census (summer)
• 1 Sept. : the census is resumed.
• 13 Oct : all tables are closed - the census' operations are officially closed.
• 20 Oct : the censors publish the Census reports.

II. Censors will complete this edict during the census with any other necessary information.

III. This edict becomes effective immediately.

Given under our hands this the 17th day of May 2764 a.u.c, in the consulship of P. Ullerius and C. Equitius. Datum sub manibus nostris a.d XVI Kal Iun. MMDCCLXIV a.u.c, P. Ullerio C. Equitio coss.

T. Iulius Sabinus

P. Memmius Albucius

censores

The census has been launched. This is an essential moment in Nova Roma's life, one of those which requires that every magistrate, officer and citizen brings, each one at her/his respective level, her/his contribution.

Though they were, in the past, sometimes neglected, the governors, i.e. the magistrates cum imperio appointed by the Senate to a given province, will be the major actors of our census : they are the only ones who, because of their mission itself, are at the meeting of the central government and of the citizens and their local environment. They are the closest magistrates of the places where our citizens live and who, for the most active or eldest among you, have already met “their” cives or are going to do it.

Our Census cannot work normally if you, governors, and we censors, not join our efforts. The first phase of our Census will thus be yours.

According a list of Nova Roma citizens who are recorded as living in your province, and that we, censors, will send you in the coming nundinum, you will have the mission to check that every citizen leaving in your province is active or not.

Why ? For our laws clearly make the difference between two kinds of members of Nova Roma Inc. / subjects of our Roman State : the citizens (cives, sing. civis) on one hand, and the allies (socii, sing. socius – fem. socia) on the other. The aim of a census is thus twice : to obtain a clear and precise picture of Nova Roma citizenry, and of the status of the various category of citizens, according their gender, age, order status, province, etc. ; to reset the exact difference between the citizens and the allies (socii). Another last and not-so-minor interest is that be checked and solved a few situations that, for a reason or another, would have not been identified, before the Census' operations, as existing or problematic.

After the Census, things will recover their usual daily course : applicants will carry on applying to citizenship, and among them, some will be considered as full citizens, who may vote and hold a public office, while other ones, who would have not passed their application test or pay their annual tax/fee, will keep a “simple citizenship”, which prevents them from holding a public office and obliges them to remain in our lowest electoral units, centuries and tribes, where their votes have, proportionally, a lesser weight.

So, the fact that a citizen answers to you in the framework of our Census does not change her/his status, in terms of full or simple citizenship : it just confirms that this civis is well, during this Census time, active. Let us be clear : this activity is just a “Census' activity” and cannot contest the fact that you, as governor, may consider this or that civis as “not that active” or “inactive” in your province daily life : we do not talk here of the same “kind of activity”.

The citizen who will answer you, in the framework of this Census, and even you may have never heard of her/him since several years or since you are a Governor, who may have forgotten to answer your previous messages and reminders, will be considered as a civis once (s)he answers in the framework of this Census, and does not clearly inform Nova Roma that (s)he does not want to remain a Nova Roma's citizen.

We, censors, will send you in the next nundinum the list of the citizens who have declared their residence in your province and are supposed to live in it currently. This list will contain private informations, as the national name and surname, the postal address, the phone number and e-mail of the concerned civis. Such informations are, naturally, confidential, and you will watch not to display them outside the restricted circle of the concerned magistrates and officers (the censorial team and yours).

Your task will be to contact every citizen of this list, and to check with him his/her information, and if (s)he confirms her/his will to remain in Nova Roma and a citizen of our Republic-Corporation.

Along with this list, we will send you, in this mind, a model-text to be sent every citizen in the e-mail(s) that you will send her/him.

In terms of schedule, your mission begins from this letter on, and more effectively, from the second letter we censors will send you, with, attached, your provincial citizenry list, the model-text and possible complementary minor informations.

Once obtained from your citizens, these informations must be sent us censors back no later than Idus Septembres (next Sept., 15). You have, therefore, several weeks to contact your cives. But do not wait, for summer is not the best period to get answers quick.

After this limit, the Censorate will complete your work, dealing with all the informations that you could not, for a reason or another, treat. One month later, the results of the census will be gathered and the Census officially published. Naturally, you will be addressed first an informal version, before this publication.

The information which you will send back the censors are :

the confirmation that you have contacted the concerned citizen ;

• if (s)he answered or not ;
• if yes, if (s)he expressed her/his will to give up his citizenship, either to be considered as a socius (ally) or to put an end to her/his Nova Roma inc. membership ;
• if the civis' informations, sent to you by the censors, are confirmed or not and, if changes, the detail of them ;
• every relevant information that you would deem necessary to send the censors back.

During our Census, you are, as governor, placed “under the supervision of the Censors” (lex Fabia III. B. 1) ). The relevant general legal framework is Lex Fabia de censu, completed by censorial instructions, which will be issued either by edicta, or by simple notes.

Lex Fabia can be consulted at: Lex fabia de censu

In case of difficulty of interpretation of this lex or of the censorial instructions, or for any question relative to the Census, do not hesitate to contact the censors.

For your information, the attention of our consuls has been brought on the need that be appointed citizens in the provinces which have no governor yet. This appointment should be issued soon. Exceptionally, the censors may, in application of lex Fabia, ask a given governor to take in charge, for the census, the citizens of a neighbor province that the consuls and the senate would have left without legatus/-a pro praetore.

Last, the expenses spent by every magistrate, or delegated citizen acting officially in the framework of the Census 2764, will be reimbursed. The censors have asked the consuls, in this mind, to propose the Senate, which manages Nova Roma Budget, a sum of 600 U.S. dollars, which should cover the expected fees. We will inform you further on this question as soon as possible.

T. Iulius Sabinus

P. Memmius Sabinus

censors