Census point

Revision as of 15:30, 7 December 2021

Census points (censualia puncta or CP) are service points or merit points given 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 Rogatio Arria de censu civium aestimando, which now supercedes lex Cornelia de punctis censualibus.

Categories of census points

The assessment of the census (the "wealth in Romanitas") of Nova Roman citizens is measured in which are 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.

Previously called "century point"

The previous term used for the census points was "century point". Some parts of the website, especially the Album Civium still uses this older term. The older regulation of census point awarding was described in the lex Fabia centuriata.