This was strictly a geographical division, analagous to our parishes, and had no connection with families, like that of the Jewish tribes.
10.

Still more remarkable was the institution of the census, and the distribution of the people into classes and centuries proportionate to their wealth.

The census was a periodical valuation of all the property possessed by the citizens, and an enumeration of all the subjects of the state: there were five classes, ranged according to the estimated value of their possessions, and the taxes they consequently paid.

The first class contained eighty centuries out of the hundred and seventy; the sixth class, in which those were included who were too poor to be taxed, counted but for one.

We shall, hereafter have occasion to see that this arrangement was also used for military purposes; it is only necessary to say here, that the sixth class were deprived of the use of arms, and exempt from serving in war.
11.