Roman Senate

In the ancient Rome, the Sénat ( senatus ) was one of the institutions of government. Its name is drawn from " senex" (old man) in reference to the old ( senatores ) which sat there.

For Cicéron, it was “the tutor, the defender, the guard of Res Publica” and ensured the permanence of the tradition.

Under the Royalty

Tite-Live (inter alia) mentions the existence and the role of the Senate already at the time of the royalty and affirms that the Senate was created by Romulus itself. The hundred members who composed it in the beginning were called “ Pères ” and their descendants “ Patriciens ”. The King named these members. One does not know the exact capacity of the senate of the time.

In -616, Tarquin Old the names there hundred novel members (all acquired with his cause) whom one will call the “Senators second-rate”.

Under the Republic

With the whole beginning of the Republic, in -509, Lucius Junius Brutus, roof the vacuums left by the executions of the reign of Tarquin Superb the and makes pass the number of the senators to three hundreds which takes for official name Senatus Populusque Romanus .

Composition of the Senate

The senators are described as Patres conscripti starting from the Republic. According to Tite-Live (II-1 delivers), it is necessary to include/understand the expression “ conscript Pères ” like a Asyndète: “ the Fathers ” and “ the Conscripts ”, this last category appointing the new senators.

In -313, the Lex Ovinia gives to both critics the capacity to prepare the list of the senators. The function is not hereditary: they can be patricians or plebeian.

Even if juridically the critics had the right to draw up the list as good seemed to them, they had actually few freedoms: after the Second Punic War, they registered automatically old the magistrates with the Senate, except in the event of serious unworthiness of their share. The fact for old a Consul or a former praetor not to be named with the Senate would have been an incredible snub.

Being then thus of former magistrates, the senators must have the minimum taxable quota to be Questeur, the first magistrature of the Cursus honorum, that is to say 400.000 Sesterce S. It is also necessary not to practice a infâmant trade, but that is not enough (Rome is closer to the Aristocratie than of the Oligarchie). The senator is not paid, even less actor or gladiator. One sees on the other hand old scribes entering to the Senate.

It is known that during the course of the meetings, the senators were to adopt a particular code of conduct. The young Romans of the high society attended the meetings to learn the trade from senator. Pompée required of his/her friend Varron to write a treaty to him to help it to chair the meetings of the Senate.

Organization of the senate

Hierarchy

The Senate was very arranged hierarchically. There was a Princeps senatus (the “first of the Senate”). It was registered in first on the album established by the critics. Then the classification in the album was established rigorously by the Censeur S. There was initially old the dictators, old the consuls, the former praetors. The function of critic was itself very important: Scipion the African even named him (with his/her colleague) princeps senatus .

To establish the classification, the critics were to base on the dignitas senators, who were to be of an irreproachable standing. The first criterion of classification was the high position occupied in the Cursus honorum : consul, praetor… The second criterion of classification was the age, or what returns to same, the time spent since the last function. The Consulares are the named senators Consul S. They are most influential of the senators.

At the beginning of the Roman Empire, Auguste organizes the senatorial Ordre, made up of the members of the Senate, and which constitutes one of the two orders of the Roman aristocracy.

Course of the meetings

All the high-ranking magistrates could convene the Senate, it could not meet without it there being invited. The magistrate who chaired the meeting thus questioned the senators one by one, in the order of the classification, while starting with the princeps senatus. He had' the day order', but the senators could say what they wanted. The magistrate ceased questioning the senators when it estimated to have collected sufficient opinion. He thus organized a vote: those which did not speak, that one called pedarii (“Which goes to foot”, because they voted with their feet), lined up behind the senator who had exposed the point of view that they estimated just. Then an act was written and filed with the Ærarium.

There existed what still exists in our modern assemblies. The obstruction was sometimes practiced. A senator was not to be stopped, and could say what he wanted; some thus benefitted from it to speak in order to delay a vote very a long time. If the sun lay down, one deferred the meeting to the following day. Cicéron reproached to this practice Caton the young person. The absenteeism also was very practiced, if one believes of it Cicéron which is delighted by the presence of half of the senators to the meeting that he convenes. When many senators were present, one spoke about Senatus frequens . There was no predetermined quorum, but sometimes the Senate even prohibited to him the abrogation of one of its decisions without a Senatus frequens .

The Senate did not have a fixed meeting room. However he was not convened anywhere: The place of the meetings was to be a temple, a place devoted by the omens. The question which the Senate was to treat could determine the choice of the temple.

Capacities of the Senate

The Senate is titular auctoritas (concept not easily translatable, comparable with a moral authority ) which appears in the form of the Sénatus-consulte (opinion of the Senate) following a question put by a titular magistrate of the Imperium; in theory the recourse to this council is not obligatory, but in practice the moral influence of the Senate is such as the majority of the projects pass in front of the Senate, and that the projects which he disapproves only by extreme scarcity are presented to popular approval. In fact the Senate, by its auctoritas increases the legal import of the acts that one proposes to him, which makes of him the holder of a normative capacity which is juridically not recognized to him (because it is a body of council).

Thus, there are few examples of frontal conflicts between the Senate and the magistrates. Those spared it so that the Senate does not oppose their Triomphe, or with the continuation of their career in the Cursus honorum.

The magistrates being elected every year, it is the Senate which dealt with the businesses of long run, it was the equivalent of the king or the president of much of modern countries, by ensuring the continuity of the government. It was the memory of the Republic.

The Senate also had the upper hand on finances of the Republic, it controlled the receipts and the expenditure. Senatus consults authorized each year the lifting of the taxes. In the event of war, the Senate decided lifting of the troops, number of legions sent and their zones of operation. It received the foreign ambassadors, and sent some of its members in embassy. Thus the contemporary foreigners (for example the Stiffs) described the Senate like “a college of kings”.

The Senate under the Empire

Sylla having made pass the number of senators to 600, then César increasing this number by 300 further, there is at the beginning of the Empire nearly a thousand of senators. Then the number of senators will vary, it will be fixed by the emperor.

Auguste proceeds to a revision of manpower of the Senate, and formalizes the organization of a senatorial Ordre: the senatorial Cens is raised to a million of Sesterce S. the function of senator becomes a function with life, and hereditary.

The Senate obtains that its decisions have a legal authenticity, but paradoxically its capacity decreases considerably. Indeed, the Senate is subjected to the wills of the emperor, who places there those which are favorable for him.

It does not have any more the control of the ærarium (the Treasury), and so starting from Tibère and until the second century the capacity to elect the magistrates the people had is transferred to him, it does nothing but record the wills of the emperor and elect the candidates who are proposed to him.

When Constantin creates his capital, Constantinople, it creates there also a Senate. At the time of the separation of the empire in two, this Senate will have the same prerogatives as the Roman Senate. In Rome, the Senate will continue to exist until the end of the Life century.

Note

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