Appius Claudius Caecus
Initially the office of censor was limited to eighteen months by a law of the dictator Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus; and the office therefore was of less importance in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. However, during the censorship of Appius Claudius Caecus (312–308 BC) the prestige of the censorship massively increased: Caecus built the first-ever Roman road (the Via Appia) and the first Roman aqueduct (the Aqua Appia), both named after him; he changed the organisation of the Roman tribes and was the first censor to draw the list of senators; and he also advocated the founding of Roman colonies (colonia) throughout Latium and Campania to support the Roman war effort in the Second Samnite War. With these efforts and reforms, Appius Claudius Caecus was able to hold the censorship for a whole lustrum (five-year period); and the office of censor, subsequently entrusted with various important duties, eventually attained one of the highest political statuses in the Roman Republic, second only to that of the consuls.