Censor

censor (sĕn`sər), title of two magistrates of ancient Rome (from c.443 B.C. to the time of Domitian). They took the census (by which they assessed taxation, voting, and military service) and supervised public behavior. They also had charge of public works and filled vacancies among the senators and knights.

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censor

In ancient eastern Asia, a government official whose primary duty was to scrutinize the conduct of officials and rulers. During the Qin (221–206 BC) and Han (206 BC–AD 220) dynasties, the censor's function was to criticize the emperor's acts, but in later periods the censorate was expanded and became an instrument for imperial control of the bureaucracy. Censors checked important documents, supervised construction projects, reviewed judicial proceedings, kept watch over state property, and looked for cases of subversion and corruption.

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censor

1. (in republican Rome) either of two senior magistrates elected to keep the list of citizens up to date, control aspects of public finance, and supervise public morals

2. Psychoanal the postulated factor responsible for regulating the translation of ideas and desires from the unconscious to the conscious mind

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Censor 

in ancient Rome, one of the highest magistracies. There were two censors, who were elected by the comitia centuriata (Centuriate Assembly) once every five years. According to classical tradition, the office was created in 443 B.C. Originally held only by patricians, it was opened to plebeians in 351 B.C. The censors conducted the census, supervised morals, compiled lists of senators and equites (after the late fourth century), and administered state finances. The office gradually lost its importance, and under Sulla the censors were essentially deprived of their authority. Beginning with Julius Caesar in the mid-first century B.C, the Roman ruler assumed the power of the censors. Subsequently, in the imperial age the office was eliminated.