centuries of Equites established by Romulus, and twelve new ones formed
from the principal plebeian families. Next in rank to them were eighty
centuries composed of persons owning property (not deducting debts) to
the amount of one hundred thousand ases (_æs_, copper, brass, bronze),
and two centuries of persons not possessed of wealth, but simply
_Fabrûm_, or workmen who manufactured things out of hard material, so
important to the state were such considered at the time. One would not
think it very difficult to get admission to this high class, when it is
remembered that an _as_ (originally a pound of copper in weight)
[Footnote: The English word _ace_ gets its meaning, "one," from the
fact that in Latin as signified the unit either of weight or measure.
Two and a half ases were equal to a sestertius, and ten ases (or four
sesterces) equalled one denarius, worth about sixteen cents.] was worth
but about a cent and a half, and that a hundred thousand such coins
would amount to only about fifteen hundred dollars; though, of course,
we should have to make allowance for the price of commodities if we
wished to arrive at the exact value in the money of our time. The
second, third, and fourth centuries were arranged on a descending grade
of property qualification, and the fifth comprised those persons whose
property was not worth less than twelve thousand five hundred ases, or
about two hundred dollars. The sixth class included all whose
possessions did not amount to even so little as this. These were called
_Proletarii_ or _Capite Censorum_; _caput_, the Latin for head, being
used in reference to these unimportant citizens for "person," as
farmers use it nowadays when they enumerate animals as so many "head."

Though the new arrangement of Servius Tullius gave the plebeians power,
it did not give them so much as might be supposed, because it was
contrived that the richest class should have the greatest number of
votes, and they with the Equites had so many that they were able to