THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
[I. In the Old Testament: Of censuses of the whole population there are recorded in the Old Testament ten cases: (1-2) under Moses (Ex. xxxviii. 26, cf. Num. i.; Num. xxvi.); (3) under David (II Sam. xxiv. 1-9; see David); (4) under Solomon (II Chron. ii. 17-18); (5) under Rehoboam (I Kings xii. 21); (6) under Jehoshaphat (II Chron. xvii. 14-19); (7) under Amaziah (II Chron. xxv. 5-6); (8) under Uzziah (II Chron. xxvi. 12-13); (9-10) under Zerubbabel (?) and Ezra (Ezra ii. 64, viii. 1-14). There are other enumerations given, but they concern merely the strength of the army, as in II Chron. xiii. 3.
II. In the New Testament: The subject here is of interest principally in its relation to the census mentioned Luke ii. 2 and Acts v. 37, and in connection with the birth of Jesus.]
Originally the Romans made a census of Roman citizens only, the primary object being the adjustment of their quota in the taxes for the costs of war. This census was intended to exhibit not only the pecuniary but the total effective utility of the individual toward the State. So it i. The included attestation of personal cir- Roman cumstances, capacity for service, civil Census of and military, and the moral worthi- Citizens. ness of those enumerated. Gradually this census of Roman citizens lost significance. While in earlier times it was repeated every five years in connection with a religious festivity (lustrum), during the civil wars it lapsed. Augustus, it is true, consistently with his general policy of bringing about an ostensible restoration of the republican order (T. Mommsen, Romisches Staatsrecht, ii. 337, Leipsic, 1893), adopted the census anew. He put on record that he had thrice held a complete census of citizens, viz., in the years 29 B.C., 8 B.C., and 14 a.d. A census of this kind was made for the last time under the Emperor Vespasian.
The census of the Roman provinces, introduced much later, was quite distinct from this census of citizens, the difference corresponding to that between the Roman people as conqueror and the provinces as conquered. Since in this light the provincial census was designed to regulate not the rights but the obligations of those enumerated, it served only to define military service 2. Provin- and tribute. The forms of the latter cial Census in the various provinces showetl great to Regulate diversity. There was doubtless every- Tribute. where some sort of ground tax (tributum soli), usually in the form of a definite tribute, partly in money, partly in natural products, which could also be levied as communal tithes, except that if in case of a defective harvest the amount of the requisite tribute was not realized, the tithes were made good through other taxes. The real-estate tax was everywhere supplemented by a personal tax (tributum capitis), which might be levied as a uniform capitation tax for all, or (as in Egypt) as a graduated poll-tax; or as property or income tax. In all forms, however, it was let by contract to tax farmers. These taxes, which in the main came down from the republican era, were in the earlier period regulated Dartly by means
of a census. But only from the time of the government of Augustus were they organized on a more extensive basis. Especially in the provinces incorporated by Caesar and the emperors into the Roman Empire were the fiscal relations thus regulated.
According to literary records well known, this was done three times in Gaul under Augustus, then under Nero and Domitian; in Syria, Judea, and Spain under Augustus; among the Clitae under Tiberius; in Britain under Claudius; in Dacia under Trajan. Besides these provinces, the following are named in inscriptions as subjected to a census in imperial times: Aquitania, Bel- 3. Cases and gium, Lugdunensis, Lower Germany, Methods of Macedonia, Thrace, Paphlagonia, Roman Africa, and Mauritania. In the re- Census, publican era the administration of these provincial censuses had been combined with the office of provincial governor; but in imperial times it was transferred to the emperor. Augustus personally executed this office in Gaul, in other cases the emperor was represented by men of the highest rank; for entire provinces, as a rule, persons of senatorial station were appointed; for smaller districts, knights. At the outset in the imperial provinces, the census was delegated only occasionally (Mommsen, ut sup., ii. 410, a, 4) to the provincial governor. The essential uniformity of organization of taxes and assessments throughout the empire, such as is proved for the later imperial times by the classic legal sources, although no traces are apparent of a sudden reorganization in relation to the provinces under the earlier period, was early anticipated by the census regulations of Augustus. As to the detailed constitution of this provincial census, which later became universal, there is still some debate; it is fairly certain, however, that it regulated a realestate tax for proprietors and a personal tax for the landless; that it included the taxpayers' personal assessment; that its organization was not communal but provincial; and that the formal declaration took place in the principal centers of the fiscal districts. Of the interval between censuses there is certain knowledge only in relation to Egypt, through the new discoveries of Egyptian papyri (U. Wilcken, Griechische Ostraka, in Archiv fur Papyrusforschung, vol. i., 1899), according to which in that country two kinds of assessments (apographai) were executed at stated times: a popular enumeration every fourteen years, and a declaration of movable property annually.
In Palestine, at all events, a census quite in the
Roman manner was executed in the year 6 a.d.,
though only in the southern part of the country,
which in that year came under immediate Roman
jurisdiction. The Syrian legate Quiri-
4. Palestin- nius was at that time entrusted with
ian Census the extraordinary imperial commission
of 6 A.D. of undertaking a census not only in
Quirinius. the newly annexed country but also
throughout Syria (cf. also CIL, iii.,
supplement, no. 6687). The vehement opposition
which the regulation provoked among the Jewish
population and especially with a faction whose