Roman Senate

The Roman Senate (Latin: Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It
was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of
Rome (traditionally founded in 753 BC). It survived the overthrow of the Roman monarchy in 509 BC; the
fall of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC; the division of the Roman Empire in AD 395; and the fall of
the Western Roman Empire in 476; Justinian's attempted reconquest of the west in the 6th century, and lasted
well into the Eastern Roman Empire's history.

During the days of the Roman Kingdom, most of the time the Senate was little more than an advisory council
to the king, but it also elected new Roman kings. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was
overthrown following a coup d'état led by Lucius Junius Brutus, who founded the Roman Republic. During
the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the various executive magistrates were quite
powerful. Since the transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was most likely gradual, it took several
generations before the Senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic,
the Senate had reached the apex of its republican power. The late Republic saw a decline in the Senate's
power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.

After the transition of the Republic into the Principate, the Senate lost much of its political power as well as its
prestige. Following the constitutional reforms of Emperor Diocletian, the Senate became politically irrelevant.
When the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the Senate was reduced to a purely-municipal
body. That decline in status was reinforced when the emperor Constantine the Great created an additional
senate in Constantinople.

After Romulus Augustulus was deposed in 476, the Senate in the West Empire functioned under the rule of
Odoacer (476–489) and during Ostrogothic rule (489–535). It was restored to its official status after the
reconquest of Italy by Justinian I but ultimately disappeared after 603, the date of its last recorded public act.
The title "senator" continued into the Middle Ages as a largely-meaningless honorific. The Eastern Senate
survived in Constantinople through the 14th century.

Contents
History
Senate of the Roman Kingdom
Senate of the Roman Republic
Senate of the Roman Empire
Post-Imperial Senate in Rome
Senate in the West
Senate in the East
See also
References
Bibliography
Primary sources
Secondary sources
Further reading
History

Senate of the Roman Kingdom

The senate was a political institution in the ancient Roman Kingdom. The word senate derives from the Latin
word senex, which means "old man"; the word thus means "assembly of elders". The prehistoric Indo-
Europeans who settled Italy in the centuries before the legendary founding of Rome in 753 BC[1] were
structured into tribal communities,[2] and these communities often included an aristocratic board of tribal
elders.[3]

The early Roman family was called a gens or "clan",[2] and each clan was an aggregation of families under a
common living male patriarch, called a pater (the Latin word for "father").[4] When the early Roman gentes
were aggregating to form a common community, the patres from the leading clans were selected[5] for the
confederated board of elders that would become the Roman senate.[4] Over time, the patres came to recognize
the need for a single leader, and so they elected a king (rex),[4] and vested in him their sovereign power.[6]
When the king died, that sovereign power naturally reverted to the patres.[4]

The senate is said to have been created by Rome's first king, Romulus, initially consisting of 100 men. The
descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class.[7] Rome's fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius
Priscus, chose a further 100 senators. They were chosen from the minor leading families, and were
accordingly called the patres minorum gentium.[8]

Rome's seventh and final king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, executed many of the leading men in the senate,
and did not replace them, thereby diminishing their number. However, in 509 BC Rome's first and third
consuls, Lucius Junius Brutus and Publius Valerius Publicola chose from amongst the leading equites new
men for the senate, these being called conscripti, and thus increased the size of the senate to 300.[9]

The senate of the Roman Kingdom held three principal responsibilities: It functioned as the ultimate repository
for the executive power,[10] it served as the king's council, and it functioned as a legislative body in concert
with the people of Rome.[11] During the years of the monarchy, the senate's most important function was to
elect new kings. While the king was nominally elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose
each new king.[10]

The period between the death of one king and the election of a new king was called the interregnum,[10]
during which time the Interrex nominated a candidate to replace the king.[12] After the senate gave its initial
approval to the nominee, he was then formally elected by the people,[13] and then received the senate's final
approval.[12] At least one king, Servius Tullius, was elected by the senate alone, and not by the people.[14]

The senate's most significant task, outside regal elections, was to function as the king's council, and while the
king could ignore any advice it offered, its growing prestige helped make the advice that it offered increasingly
difficult to ignore. Only the king could make new laws, although he often involved both the senate and the
curiate assembly (the popular assembly) in the process.[11]

Senate of the Roman Republic

When the Republic began, the Senate functioned as an advisory council. It consisted of 300–500 senators who
served for life. Only patricians were members in the early period, but plebeians were also admitted before
long, although they were denied the senior magistracies for a longer period.

Senators were entitled to wear a toga with a broad purple stripe, maroon shoes, and an iron (later gold) ring.
The Senate of the Roman Republic
passed decrees called senatus consulta,
which in form constituted "advice" from
the senate to a magistrate. While these
decrees did not hold legal force, they
usually were obeyed in practice.[15]

If a senatus consultum conflicted with a

law (lex) that was passed by an assembly,
the law overrode the senatus consultum
because the senatus consultum had its
authority based in precedent and not in
law. A senatus consultum, however,
could serve to interpret a law.[16] Representation of a sitting of the Roman senate: Cicero attacks
Catiline, from a 19th-century fresco in Palazzo Madama, Rome,
Through these decrees, the senate
house of the Italian Senate. It is worth noting that idealistic
directed the magistrates, especially the
medieval and subsequent artistic depictions of the Senate in
Roman Consuls (the chief magistrates) in session are almost uniformly inaccurate. Illustrations commonly
their prosecution of military conflicts. show the senators arranged in a semicircle around an open space
The senate also had an enormous degree where orators were deemed to stand; in reality the structure of the
of power over the civil government in existing Curia Julia building, which dates in its current form from the
Rome. This was especially the case with Emperor Diocletian, shows that the senators sat in straight and
regard to its management of state parallel lines on either side of the interior of the building. In current
finances, as only it could authorize the media depictions in film this is shown correctly in The Fall of the
disbursal of public funds from the Roman Empire, and incorrectly in, for example, Spartacus.
treasury. As the Roman Republic grew,
the senate also supervised the
administration of the provinces, which were governed by former consuls and praetors, in that it decided which
magistrate should govern which province.

Since the 3rd century BC the senate also played a pivotal role in cases of emergency. It could call for the
appointment of a dictator (a right resting with each consul with or without the senate's involvement). However,
after 202 BC, the office of dictator fell out of use (and was revived only two more times) and was replaced
with the senatus consultum ultimum ("ultimate decree of the senate"), a senatorial decree which authorised the
consuls to employ any means necessary to solve the crisis.[17]

While senate meetings could take place either inside or outside the formal boundary of the city (the
pomerium), no meeting could take place more than a mile (1 km) outside it.[18] The senate operated while
under various religious restrictions. For example, before any meeting could begin, a sacrifice to the gods was
made, and a search for divine omens (the auspices) was taken.[19] The senate was only allowed to assemble in
places dedicated to the gods.

Meetings usually began at dawn, and a magistrate who wished to summon the senate had to issue a
compulsory order.[20] The senate meetings were public[18] and directed by a presiding magistrate (usually a
consul).[6] While in session, the senate had the power to act on its own, and even against the will of the
presiding magistrate if it wished. The presiding magistrate began each meeting with a speech,[21] then referred
an issue to the senators, who would discuss it in order of seniority.[18]

Senators had several other ways in which they could influence (or frustrate) a presiding magistrate. For
example, every senator was permitted to speak before a vote could be held, and since all meetings had to end
by nightfall,[15] a dedicated group or even a single senator could talk a proposal to death (a filibuster or diem
consumere).[21] When it was time to call a vote, the presiding magistrate could bring up whatever proposals he
wished, and every vote was between a proposal and its negative.[22]
With a dictator as well as a senate, the senate could veto any of the dictator's
decisions. At any point before a motion passed, the proposed motion could be
vetoed, usually by a tribune. If there was no veto, and the matter was of
minor importance, it could be put to either a voice vote or a show of hands. If
there was no veto and no obvious majority, and the matter was of a significant
nature, there was usually a physical division of the house,[18] with senators
voting by taking a place on either side of the chamber.

Senate membership was controlled by the censors. By the time of Augustus,

ownership of property worth at least one million sesterces was required for
membership. The ethical requirements of senators were significant. In contrast
to members of the Equestrian order, senators could not engage in banking or
any form of public contract. They could not own a ship that was large enough
to participate in foreign commerce,[18] they could not leave Italy without
permission from the rest of the senate and they were not paid a salary.
Election to magisterial office resulted in automatic senate membership.[23]

Senate of the Roman Empire

After the fall of the Roman Republic, the constitutional balance of power
shifted from the Roman senate to the Roman Emperor. Though retaining its
legal position as under the republic, in practice, however, the actual authority
of the imperial senate was negligible, as the emperor held the true power in The so-called "Togatus
the state. As such, membership in the senate became sought after by Barberini", a statue depicting
individuals seeking prestige and social standing, rather than actual authority. a Roman senator holding the
imagines (effigies) of
During the reigns of the first emperors, legislative, judicial, and electoral deceased ancestors in his
powers were all transferred from the Roman assemblies to the senate. hands; marble, late 1st
However, since the emperor held control over the senate, the senate acted as a century BC; head (not
vehicle through which he exercised his autocratic powers. belonging): mid-1st century
BC.
The first emperor, Augustus, reduced the size of the senate from 900
members to 600, even though there were only about 100
to 200 active senators at one time. After this point, the
size of the senate was never again drastically altered.
Under the empire, as was the case during the late
republic, one could become a senator by being elected
quaestor (a magistrate with financial duties), but only if
one were already of senatorial rank.[24] In addition to
quaestors, elected officials holding a range of senior
positions were routinely granted senatorial rank by virtue
of the offices that they held.[25]

If an individual was not of senatorial rank, there were

two ways for him to become a senator. Under the first
method, the emperor manually granted that individual the
authority to stand for election to the quaestorship,[24]
while under the second method, the emperor appointed
that individual to the senate by issuing a decree.[26]
Under the empire, the power that the emperor held over The Curia Julia in the Roman Forum, the seat of
the imperial Senate.
the senate was absolute.[27]
The two consuls were a part of the senate, but had more power than the senators. During senate meetings, the
emperor sat between the two consuls,[28] and usually acted as the presiding officer. Senators of the early
empire could ask extraneous questions or request that a certain action be taken by the senate. Higher ranking
senators spoke before those of lower rank, although the emperor could speak at any time.[28]

Besides the emperor, consuls and praetors could also preside over the senate. Since no senator could stand for
election to a magisterial office without the emperor's approval, senators usually did not vote against bills that
had been presented by the emperor. If a senator disapproved of a bill, he usually showed his disapproval by
not attending the senate meeting on the day that the bill was to be voted on.[29]

While the Roman assemblies continued to meet after the founding of the empire, their powers were all
transferred to the senate, and so senatorial decrees (senatus consulta) acquired the full force of law.[27] The
legislative powers of the imperial senate were principally of a financial and an administrative nature, although
the senate did retain a range of powers over the provinces.[27]

During the early Roman Empire, all judicial powers that had been held by the Roman assemblies were also
transferred to the senate. For example, the senate now held jurisdiction over criminal trials. In these cases, a
consul presided, the senators constituted the jury, and the verdict was handed down in the form of a decree
(senatus consultum),[27][30] and, while a verdict could not be appealed, the emperor could pardon a convicted
individual through a veto. The emperor Tiberius transferred all electoral powers from the assemblies to the
senate,[30] and, while theoretically the senate elected new magistrates, the approval of the emperor was always
needed before an election could be finalized.

Around 300 AD, the emperor Diocletian enacted a series of constitutional reforms. In one such reform, he
asserted the right of the emperor to take power without the theoretical consent of the senate, thus depriving the
senate of its status as the ultimate repository of supreme power. Diocletian's reforms also ended whatever
illusion had remained that the senate had independent legislative, judicial, or electoral powers. The senate did,
however, retain its legislative powers over public games in Rome, and over the senatorial order.

The senate also retained the power to try treason cases, and to elect some magistrates, but only with the
permission of the emperor. In the final years of the western empire, the senate would sometimes try to appoint
their own emperor, such as in the case of Eugenius, who was later defeated by forces loyal to Theodosius I.
The senate remained the last stronghold of the traditional Roman religion in the face of the spreading
Christianity, and several times attempted to facilitate the return of the Altar of Victory (first removed by
Constantius II) to the senatorial curia.

According to the Historia Augusta (Elagabalus 4.2 and 12.3) emperor Elagabalus had his mother or
grandmother take part in Senate proceedings. "And Elagabalus was the only one of all the emperors under
whom a woman attended the senate like a man, just as though she belonged to the senatorial order" (David
Magie's translation). According to the same work, Elagabalus also established a women's senate called the
senaculum, which enacted rules to be applied to matrons regarding clothing, chariot riding, the wearing of
jewelry, etc. (Elagabalus 4.3 and Aurelian 49.6). Before this, Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero, had
been listening to Senate proceedings, concealed behind a curtain, according to Tacitus (Annales, 13.5).

Post-Imperial Senate in Rome

Senate in the West

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the senate continued to function under the Germanic chieftain
Odoacer, and then under Ostrogothic rule. The authority of the senate rose considerably under barbarian
leaders, who sought to protect the institution. This period was characterized by the rise of prominent Roman
senatorial families, such as the Anicii, while the senate's leader, the princeps senatus, often served as the right
hand of the barbarian leader. It is known that the senate successfully installed Laurentius as pope in 498,
despite the fact that both King Theodoric and Emperor Anastasius supported the other candidate,
Symmachus.[31]

The peaceful coexistence of senatorial and barbarian rule continued until the Ostrogothic leader Theodahad
found himself at war with Emperor Justinian I and took the senators as hostages. Several senators were
executed in 552 as revenge for the death of the Ostrogothic king, Totila. After Rome was recaptured by the
imperial (Byzantine) army, the senate was restored, but the institution (like classical Rome itself) had been
mortally weakened by the long war. Many senators had been killed and many of those who had fled to the east
chose to remain there, thanks to favorable legislation passed by Emperor Justinian, who, however, abolished
virtually all senatorial offices in Italy. The importance of the Roman senate thus declined rapidly.[32]

In 578 and again in 580, the senate sent envoys to Constantinople. They delivered 3,000 pounds (1,360
kilograms) of gold as a gift to the new emperor, Tiberius II Constantinus, along with a plea for help against the
Lombards, who had invaded Italy ten years earlier. Pope Gregory I, in a sermon from 593, lamented the almost
complete disappearance of the senatorial order and the decline of the prestigious institution.[33][34]

It is not clearly known when the Roman senate disappeared in the West, but it is known from the Gregorian
register that the senate acclaimed new statues of Emperor Phocas and Empress Leontia in 603,[35][36] and that
was also the last time the senate was mentioned.[35] In 630, the house of the Senate, Curia Julia, was
transformed into a church by Pope Honorius I, probably with the permission of the Emperor Heraclius.[37]

In later medieval times, the title "senator" was still in occasional use, but it had become a meaningless adjunct
title of nobility and no longer implied membership in an organized governing body.

In 1144, the Commune of Rome attempted to establish a government modeled on the old Roman Republic in
opposition to the temporal power of the higher nobles and the pope. This included setting up a senate along the
lines of the ancient one. The revolutionaries divided Rome into fourteen regions, each electing four senators
for a total of 56 (although one source, often repeated, gives a total of 50). These senators elected as their leader
Giordano Pierleoni, son of the Roman consul Pier Leoni, with the title patrician, since consul was also a
deprecated noble styling.

This renovated form of government was constantly embattled. By the end of the 12th century, it had
undergone a radical transformation, with the reduction of the number of senators to a single one – Summus
Senator – being thereafter the title of the head of the civil government of Rome. In modern terms, for example,
this is comparable to the reduction of a board of commissioners to a single commissioner, such as the political
head of the police department of New York City. Between 1191 and 1193, this was a certain Benedetto called
Carus homo or carissimo.

Senate in the East

The senate continued to exist in Constantinople, although it evolved into an institution that differed in some
fundamental forms from its predecessor. Designated in Greek as synkletos, or assembly, the Senate of
Constantinople was made up of all current or former holders of senior ranks and official positions, plus their
descendants. At its height during the 6th and 7th centuries, the Senate represented the collective wealth and
power of the Empire, on occasion nominating and dominating individual emperors.[38]

In the second half of the 10th century a new office, proëdrus (Greek: πρόεδρος), was created as head of the
senate by Emperor Nicephorus Phocas. Up to the mid-11th century, only eunuchs could become proëdrus, but
later this restriction was lifted and several proëdri could be appointed, of which the senior proëdrus, or
protoproëdrus (Greek: πρωτοπρόεδρος), served as the head of the senate. There were two types of meetings
practised: silentium, in which only magistrates currently in office participated and conventus, in which all
syncletics (Greek: συγκλητικοί, senators) could participate. The Senate in Constantinople existed until at least
the beginning of the 13th century, its last known act being the election of Nicolas Canabus as emperor in 1204
during the Fourth Crusade.[39]

See also
Acta Senatus Interrex
Aedile Master of the Horse
Centuria Pontifex Maximus
Curia Princeps senatus
Comitia curiata Promagistrate
Gerousia Roman Law
SPQR Plebeian Council
Cursus honorum Praetor

References
1. Abbott, 3
2. Abbott, 1
3. Abbott, 12
4. Abbott, 6
5. Abbott, 16
6. Byrd, 42
7. Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:8
8. Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:35
9. Livy, Ab urbe condita, 2.1
10. Abbott, 10
11. Abbott, 17
12. Abbott, 14
13. Byrd, 20
14. Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1.41
15. Byrd, 44
16. Abbott, 233
17. Abbott, 240
18. Byrd, 34
19. Lintott, 72
20. Lintott, 75
21. Lintott, 78
22. Lintott, 83
23. Byrd, 36
24. Abbott, 381
25. Metz, 59, 60
26. Abbott, 382
27. Abbott, 385
28. Abbott, 383
29. Abbott, 384
30. Abbott, 386
31. Levillain, 907
32. Schnurer, 339
33. Bronwen, 3. "For since the Senate has failed, the people have perished, and the sufferings and
groans of the few who remain are multiplied each day. Rome, now empty, is burning!"
34. Cooper, 23
35. Levillain 1047
36. Richards, 246
37. Kaegi, 196
38. Runciman, 60.
39. Phillips, 222–226.

Bibliography

Primary sources
Cicero, Marcus Tullius De Re Publica, Book Two (http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt
&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=546&chapter=83299&layout=html&Itemid=27)
Cicero, Marcus Tullius (1841). The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero: Comprising his
Treatise on the Commonwealth; and his Treatise on the Laws. Translated from the original, with
Dissertations and Notes in Two Volumes. By Francis Barham, Esq. London: Edmund
Spettigue. Vol. 1.
Livy, Ab urbe condita
Polybius (1823). The General History of Polybius: Translated from the Greek. By James
Hampton. Oxford: Printed by W. Baxter. Fifth Edition, Vol 2.
Polybius, Rome at the End of the Punic Wars: An Analysis of the Roman Government (http://w
ww.fordham.edu/HALSALL/ANCIENT/polybius6.html)

Secondary sources
Abbott, Frank Frost (1901). A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. Elibron
Classics, ISBN 0-543-92749-0.
Brewer, E. Cobham; Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (http://www.bartleby.com/81/4009.html)
(1898).
Byrd, Robert (1995). The Senate of the Roman Republic. U.S. Government Printing Office,
Senate Document 103-23.
Cooper, Kate; Julia Hillner (13 September 2007). Religion, Dynasty, and Patronage in Early
Christian Rome, 300–900 (https://books.google.com/books?id=TRPkuJSPb10C&pg=PA23).
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-46838-1.
Hooke, Nathaniel; The Roman History, from the Building of Rome to the Ruin of the
Commonwealth, F. Rivington (Rome). Original in New York Public Library
Kaegi, Walter Emil (27 March 2003). Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=tlNlFZ_7UhoC&pg=PA196). Cambridge University Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-
521-81459-1.
Levillain, Philippe (2002). The Papacy: Gaius-Proxies (https://books.google.com/books?id=7V
DcmDeLuV4C&pg=PA1047). Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-92230-2.
 Lintott, Andrew (1999). The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press
(ISBN 0-19-926108-3).
Metz, David (2008). Daily Life of the Ancient Romans. pp. 59 & 60. ISBN 978-0-87220-957-2.
Neil, Bronwen; Matthew J. Dal Santo (9 September 2013). A Companion to Gregory the Great
(https://books.google.com/books?id=vQFBAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3). BRILL. p. 3. ISBN 978-90-
04-25776-4.
Phillips, Jonathan (2004). The Fourth Crusade and the Siege of Constantinople. Penguin.
ISBN 9781101127728.
Richards, Jeffrey (1979). The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476–752 (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=tsE9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA246). Routledge.
ISBN 9780710000989.
Runciman, Steven (1956). Byzantine Civilisation. Meridian.
Taylor, Lily Ross (1966). Roman Voting Assemblies: From the Hannibalic War to the
Dictatorship of Caesar. The University of Michigan Press (ISBN 0-472-08125-X).
Schnurer, Gustov (1956). Church And Culture in the Middle Ages 350–814. Kessinger
Publishing (ISBN 978-1-4254-2322-3).
Wood, Reverend James, The Nuttall Encyclopædia (1907) – a work now in public domain.

Further reading
Cameron, A. The Later Roman Empire, (Fontana Press, 1993).
Crawford, M. The Roman Republic, (Fontana Press, 1978).
Eck, Werner. Monument und Inschrift. Gesammelte Aufsätze zur senatorischen Repräsentation
in der Kaiserzeit (Berlin/New York: W. de Gruyter, 2010).
Gruen, Erich, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (U California Press, 1974).
Hoеlkeskamp, Karl-Joachim, Senatus populusque Romanus. Die politische Kultur der
Republik – Dimensionen und Deutungen (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004).
Ihne, Wilhelm. Researches into the History of the Roman Constitution. William Pickering. 1853.
Johnston, Harold Whetstone. Orations and Letters of Cicero: With Historical Introduction, An
Outline of the Roman Constitution, Notes, Vocabulary and Index. Scott, Foresman and
Company. 1891.
Krieckhaus, Andreas, Senatorische Familien und ihre patriae (1./2. Jahrhundert n. Chr.)
(Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovac, 2006) (Studien zur Geschichtesforschung des Altertums, 14).
Millar, Fergus, The Emperor in the Roman World, (London, Duckworth, 1977, 1992).
Mommsen, Theodor. Roman Constitutional Law. 1871–1888
Talbert, Richard A. The Senate of Imperial Rome (Princeton, Princeton Univerversity Press,
1984).
Tighe, Ambrose. The Development of the Roman Constitution. D. Apple & Co. 1886.
Von Fritz, Kurt. The Theory of the Mixed Constitution in Antiquity. Columbia University Press,
New York. 1975.

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