They received a good salary, but could earn additional commissions for collecting and recording state revenues, and making official copies of government documents and decrees.
[6] By the end of the 4th century BC, the office evidently afforded several advantages, including a knowledge of Roman law that was traditionally the privilege of the elite, and the ability to trade favors that could be translated into political capital.
Though not the first plebeian to hold the office,[7] his victory, made possible by the growing number of freedmen and those of libertine descent among the urban population, prompted the censors of 304 BC to adopt voter registration policies that curtailed the political power of the lower orders.
At the beginning of Clodius's year in office as tribune of the plebs in 58 BC, Cloelius organized ludi compitalicii, neighborhood new-year festivities that had been banned as promoting unrest and political subversion.
[10] The Augustan poet Horace introduced himself in his first published book as the son of a freedman and as a civil servant, specifically a scriba quaestorius, or clerk to the quaestors who were in charge of the public treasury.