By having the arbitrary power of fixing the value of every man's taxable property, and the exclusive management of the register of the citizens, the ruling order was enabled to pack the centuries in such a manner as for the most part decided the event of proceedings at their assemblies. If a man's taxable property might be multiplied by way of penalty, the same thing might be done under the plea of a well-earned reward: still oftener might general regulations be made, by the application of which the property of some stood higher, that of others lower in the classes than before: and how many direct falsehoods may have been resorted to, for the sake of getting a majority? Party-spirit is blind to the baseness of such frauds. So long as the army received no pay, too high an assessment seldom subjected a man to any other disadvantage than heavier duty in war: even from this the consuls might relieve him, since they made their levies at discretion: and if a tax was ever laid on, the quaestors, who were exclusively patricians, might pass over whom they chose in collecting it. The tribunes indeed undoubtedly took the part of those whose property the censors rated too low, in order to transfer them into an inferior class: but how were false voters to be convicted?