Publicanus album legit, quasi censor sit.

Not exactly. In Roman Latin, publicanus usually means a tax farmer or public contractor: someone who handled revenues collected on behalf of the state.

This is not the same as the modern English publican, which means a person who runs a pub. They are historically related words, but their meanings are different.

So in this sentence, publicanus is a Roman official or businessman connected with public revenue, not an innkeeper.

Because album originally comes from albus, meaning white. In Roman usage, an album was a white board or whitened tablet on which official notices or names were written. From there, the word came to mean the list or register written on that board.

So here album does not mean the color white by itself; it means an official roll, register, or list.

Album is accusative singular neuter.

It is the direct object of legit, so it answers the question what does the tax farmer read?
He reads the list = album.

Here legit means reads.

It comes from legere, which can have several meanings, including:

• to read
• to gather
• to choose/select

In this sentence, because the object is album meaning list/register, the natural meaning is reads or perhaps goes through the list.

Yes, if macrons are not written, legit can look ambiguous.

It could represent:

• legit = he reads / he is reading (present)
• lēgit = he read / he has read (perfect)

In fully marked Latin, the perfect would have a long ē: lēgit. Since many printed texts leave macrons out, context has to tell you which one is meant. In this sentence, if the meaning shown to the learner is present, then you should understand legit as he reads.

Quasi means as if, as though, or just as if.

It introduces a comparison: the tax farmer is reading the list as if he were a censor.

So quasi censor sit is a comparative clause describing the manner in which he is acting.

Because after quasi in this kind of comparison, Latin often uses the subjunctive rather than the indicative.

• est = he is would present the statement as a straightforward fact.
• sit = he may be / were in the subjunctive shows that this is only a comparison, not an actual claim that he really is a censor.

So quasi censor sit means as if he were a censor, not since he is a censor.

English were does not automatically mean Latin imperfect subjunctive.

Latin chooses tense by Latin rules, not by English wording. Here sit is the present subjunctive, and it can be used for a present-time comparison: he is acting now as if he were a censor.

If the main sentence were in past time, or if the writer wanted a different nuance, you might see esset instead. But sit is perfectly normal for a present comparison.

Because censor is a predicate nominative with sit.

With forms of esse (to be), Latin normally puts the complement in the nominative, not the accusative.

So:

• censor sit = he is / were a censor
• not censorem sit

This is just like Marcus est puer = Marcus is a boy, where both Marcus and puer are nominative.

Because the subject is understood from the main clause.

The subject of the whole sentence is publicanus, and in quasi censor sit Latin does not need to repeat is or ille. The sense is:

The tax farmer reads the list, as if he were a censor.

Latin very often leaves out pronouns and even repeated nouns when the subject is already clear from context and from the verb form.

A censor was an important Roman magistrate. Among other duties, censors dealt with the census and with official rolls and classifications of citizens. They were associated with reviewing and controlling lists.

That makes censor a meaningful comparison here: the tax farmer is reading the register as if he had the authority of a censor.

So the sentence suggests that he is acting in an officious or authoritative way.

Not especially. Latin word order is flexible, but this sentence is quite understandable and fairly natural:

• Publicanus = subject
• album = object
• legit = main verb
• quasi censor sit = comparative clause

A very literal shape is:

The tax farmer the list reads, as if a censor he were.

Latin often places the verb toward the end of its clause, and here sit comes at the end of the subordinate clause in a very typical way.