accenseo

ac-censĕo(ŭi), nsum, 2, v. a., to reckon to or among, to add to; as a verb. finit. very rare: numine sub dominae lateo atque accenseor illi, i. e. I am her companion, Ov. M. 15, 546; and: accensi, qui his accensebantur, id est attribuebantur, Non. 520, 7.
But hence in frequent use,ac-census, a, um, P. a., reckoned among, or subst.accensus, i., m.

A. One who attends another of higher rank, an attendant, follower; hence, a state officer who attended one of the highest magistrates (consul, proconsul, praetor, etc.) at Rome or in the provinces, for the purpose of summoning parties to court, maintaining order and quiet during its sessions, and proclaiming the hours; an apparitor, attendant, orderly (on account of this office, Varr. 6, § 89 Müll., would derive the word from accieo), Varr. ap. Non. 59, 2 sq.; Cic. Q. Fr. 1, 1, 4 and 7; id. Att. 4, 16; Liv. 45, 29, 2; Suet. Caes. 20 al.
The person to whom one is accensus is annexed in dat. or gen.: qui tum accensus Neroni fuit, Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 28: libertus, accensus Gabinii, id. Att. 4, 16, 12. The Decurions and Centurions also had their accensi as aids, Varr. L. L. 7, § 58 Müll.; also at funerals, as leader of the procession, Cic. Leg. 2, 24, 61. Cf. on the accensi, Necker’s Antiq. 2, 2, p. 375 sq.
B. accensi, a kind of reserve troops who followed the army as supernumeraries (= ascripticii, or, in later times, supernumerarii), to take the place of those who fell in battle. They had no arms, and were only clothed with the military cloak, and hence called velati: quia vestiti et inermes sequuntur exercitum, Paul. ex Fest. p. 369 Müll.; they used in battle only slings and stones. They were also employed in constructing public roads. Cf. Mommsen, Degli Accensi Velati, in Annali del. Inst. vol. xxi. (1849), p. 209 sq.; and Necker’s Antiq. 3, 2, p. 242 sq.

[LewisShort]