Senatorial order

The senatorial order , in the ancient Rome does not define exactly the same thing according to the modes policy in place. The financial elite and Aristocratique of the Roman Société formed as of the Fondation of Rome a Sénat and allotted unquestionable a number of privilege and public office in order to satisfy the needs for the state. The nature and the role of the order will evolve/move and, and, according to certain authors, will lead to the aristocracy peerage-book of the Moyen-âge.

The senatorial college under the Republic

Under the Roman Republic, the senators strictly speaking do not form an order juridically made up, as that will be the case under the Empire, nor a social class, because they are too very few. The Senate is an assembly, a college, whose members are the notable ones, i.e. Patricien S of the Roman Société, with their distinctive sign: The senator recognizes himself with broad band of crimson bent on his tunic (tunic known as Laticlave ). Like notable, it has privileges related to its row, like the places reserved in the forefront at the time of the ceremonies, the spectacles and the plays.

How to reach the senate

Starting from 313 av. J.C, by the Lex Ovinia, the Senate is listed every five years by the Censeur, which registers the name of each senator in a register called album . At the time of this census, the critic can exclude a member from the senatorial order, in general for moral misconduct.

The access terms with the Senate formalize only at the end of the Second Punic War, that is to say towards -200, when the vacuums caused by the war are filled by the incorporation of the former magistrates. The membership of the Roman Sénat depends then on three conditions, it was necessary:

to exert or have exerted a magistrature,
to have exerted this magistrature, it was necessary to have been eligible, therefore to belong to the first class of the citizens, by having goods being worth at least 400.000 Sesterce S
to answer criteria of standing (not to have bad reputation, not to exert a infâmant trade…)

The senators endeavoured to remain the notable related ones to the land property. The senators had land goods essentially; the law forced to them to have grounds in Italy and a house with Rome. The Lex Claudia of 218 av. J.C limited the incomes which they could draw from the craft industry, the trade or the bank, which the use of figureheads did not prevent.

The family had for them a great importance; alliances by marriage reinforced these bonds.

Career

What defines most surely this social layer, it is the career followed by its members. It included/understood four types of loads.

1. The preliminary loads (before the magistratures, which will be seen at the following point).

military Powerful orator, in province for one duration in general slightly higher than the year;
member of one of the four commissions which, on the whole, count twenty people, in Rome (it is the Vigintivirat). At the exit of the Vigintivirat the military service is often done as a powerful orator of the legion.

2. The magistratures (the Course honorum itself): they are annual, without possible reiteration, and collegial. One distinguishes, in the ascending order:

Questeur (finances);
municipal official (police force and public buildings) or Powerful orator of the plebs (title empties of being able);
Praetor (justice);
Consul (vacuum of being able, but very honorary).

3. Intermediate functions (between the magistratures): they are very numerous, also we will mention only some of them, and they can be exerted in Rome, in Italy or in the provinces.

Praetorian Functions (i.e. for former praetors). In the provinces: Legate (of legion, province); proconsul. In Rome and in Italy: Prefect (of the treasure); Curator (of public works, of the Tiber, of the sewers of Rome, Italian roads).
consular Functions (for former consuls). In the provinces: Legate of a large province to several legions, proconsul (of Africa, Asia). In Rome and in Italy: same titles as those which were carried by the former praetors

4. Senatorial priesthoods of the Town of Rome: Flamines, Arvales, Luperques, Saliens, etc

The senatorial order under the Empire

After the purgings and the recruitments operated at the time of the civil wars, Auguste carries out a formalization of the senatorial order, and raises the taxable quota necessary to a million of Sesterce S, between -18 and 13. The obligation to be landowner in Italy is maintained, which caused an increase in the price of the arable lands.

The senatorial order is the highest class of the Roman company under the Roman Empire. Among its male members are chooses the senators, old titular of a magistrature of the course honorum . The membership of the senatorial order becomes hereditary. The entry in the senatorial order can be granted by a higher authority (emperor, etc) by two means: the collation of laticlave (gift of the senatorial toga), inserts the citizen in the senatorial order, and the adlectio who makes of the citizen a senator in an immediate way.

The Roman Emperors made several times use of the function of critic to operate renewals or eliminations within the Roman Sénat, and to thus create a flexible assembly.

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