445 



SENATUS. 



SENATUS. 



146 



also it was found necessary to enforce the attendance by a multa, or a 

 pignoris captio. (Cic., ' Philip.,'!. 5.) Augustus increased the seve- 

 rity of the law in this respect. (Dion Casa., liv. 18 ; Iv. 3 ; Ix. 11.) 

 At first he required the presence of four hundred members to con- 

 stitute a full assembly ; but he afterwards reduced this number ; and 

 at a later period, the presence of seventy, or even fewer senators, was 

 sufficient. (Lamprid., ' Alex. Sev.,' 16.) 



The places of meeting for the senate (curias or senacula) were always 

 templa, that is, places consecrated by the augurs; and there were 

 originally three of them: 1, the temple of Concordia, between the 

 Capitol and the Forum ; 2, a place near the Porta Capena ; and 3, a place 

 near the temple of Bellona, outside of the city. (Fest., s. v. ' Senacula.') 

 Subsequently, however, meetings of the se.nate were held in a great 

 many other places. The place near the temple of Bellona was princi- 

 pally used for the purpose of giving audience to generals who returned 

 from their campaigns, and were desirous to obtain a triumph ; also to 

 receive foreign ambassadors, especially such as were sent by an enemy, 

 and were not allowed to enter the city. Towards the close of the 

 republic, it was decreed that during the whole month of February the 

 senate should give audience to foreign ambassadors on all days on 

 which a senate could be held, and that no other business should be 

 transacted in the senate until the affairs of the foreign ambassadors 

 were settled. (Cic. ' ad Quint. Frat.,' ii. 13 ; ' ad Fam.,' i. 4.) 



In the earliest times of Rome, the right of convoking the senate 

 belonged to the kings or their vicegerents, and they also introduced 

 the subjects for discussion. The princeps senatus, or custos urbis, put 

 the question. The patres majorum gentium voted first, and the 

 patres minorum gentium last. (Cic., ' De Rep.,' ii. 20.) During the 

 republic the senate might be convoked by the consuls, the dictator, 

 the praetor, the tribunes of the people, the interrez, or the praefectus 

 urbi : the decemvirs, military tribunes, and the triumviri rei 

 publics; constituenda:, likewise exercised this right; but the persons 

 who intended to convoke the senate generally offered ^ sacrifices to the 

 gods and consulted the auspices. (Gellius, xiv. 7.) The assembled 

 senators appear to have sat in a regular and fixed order : first, the 

 Princeps senatus ; then the Consulares, Censorii, Praetorii, ^EdUicii, 

 Tribunicii ; and lastly, the Qiiuutorii. In this succession they also 

 gave their votes. (Cic., ' Philip.', v. 17 ; xiii. 14 ; ' Ad. Att.', xii. 21.) 

 The majority always decided. This mode of voting remained the 

 same during the empire. (Plin., 'Epist.', viil. 14; ix. 13; Tacit., 

 ' Annal.', iii. 22 ; xi. 5.) The business was conducted as follows : the 

 magistrate who had convoked the senate was always the president, and 

 be laid before the assembly the subjects for discussion, opening the 

 business with the words, " Quod bonum, faustum, felix, fortunatum 

 sit; referinius ad voj, patres couacripti." After the subject of dis- 

 cussion was explained, the president asked the senators for their 

 opinion in the order in which they gat. (Liv., L 32 ; ix. 8.) If the 

 consules designati were present, they had the precedence even of the 

 princeps senatus. (Sallust., ' Cat', 50 ; Cic. ' Philip.', v. 13.) If any 

 of the members dissented from the measure proposed, he might express 

 his opinion freely, or propose an amendment to it. After the dis- 

 cussions were over, the president called upon the members to vote ; 

 and the majority, which decided the question, was ascertained either 

 by numeratio or discessio. A sitting of the senate was, generally 

 speaking, not continued after sun-set; but in unexpected or very 

 urgent cases the business was carried on by candle-light, and even till 

 after midnight. Augustus introduced the custom that every senator, 

 before he took his seat, should offer incense and a libation to the god 

 in whose temple the meeting was held. (Suet., ' Aug.', 35.) During 

 the time of the empire one of the consuls seems always to have presided 

 in the senate, and the emperors only when they were consuls (Plin., 

 ' Epist.', ii. 11); but by virtue of their tribunician power, they might 

 at any session introduce any subject they pleased (Dion Cass., liii. 32), 

 and subsequently this privilege was granted to them by an especial 

 decree (jus relationis). (Vopisc., ' Prob.', 12 ; J. Capitol., ' Pertin.', 5 ; 

 M. Antonin.', 6 ; Lamprid., 'Alex. Sev.', 1.) The measures or pro- 

 position* made by an emperor were introduced in the form of 

 written orations (orationes principum), and read in the senate by one of 

 his quasrtors. (Suet., ' Aug.', 65 ; Tit., 6, Tacit., ' Annal.', xvi. 27.) The 

 manner of conducting the business was on the whole the same as in 

 the time of the republic. But when magistrates were elected in the 

 senate, the votes were given by ballot. (Plin., ' Epiat.', iii. 20 ; xi. 5.) 

 Previous to the time of Caesar the transactions of the senate were not 

 kept or preserved in any regular way. (Plut., ' Cat. Min.', 23.) Caesar 

 was the first who ordained that all the transactions of the senate (acta 

 senatus) should be kept and made public. (Suet., ' C;cs.', 20.) These 

 transactions were written under the superintendence of one of the 

 senators (called " ab actis," or " a cura actorum "), by scribes appointed 

 for the purpose. (Tacit., ' Annal.', v. 4, &c. ; Spart, ' Hadr.', 3.) In 

 case the business of the senate was carried on in secret, the senators 

 themselves officiated as clerks. (Jul. Capitol., ' Gord.', 12.) 



Down to the end of the republic the senate of Rome partook more 

 or less of the character of a body representing the people : it was, as 

 Dionysius says (v., p. 331, vi. p. 408), the head and soul of the whole 

 republic, or the concentrated intelligence and wisdom of the whole nation. 

 It is chieflyto the consistency, wisdom, and energy with which the senate 

 acted during a long period that Rome was indebted for her greatness 

 and her success. 



During the kingly period the kings acted according to the deter- 

 minations of the senate, and the kings had only the executive. The 

 subjects on which the senate decided before they came before the 

 people, comprehended the whole internal administration of the state, 

 legislation, finance, and war. On the death of a king the senate pro- 

 posed the new candidate to the comitia by means of the interrex. 

 (Liv., i. 17.) At the establishment of the republic no change appears 

 to have been made in the power and authority of the senate. The 

 senate and the people had the sovereign power. At first all measures, 

 whether relating to the administration or legislation, originated with 

 and were prepared by the senate ; but this power was afterwards con- 

 siderably diminished by the attacks of the tribunes of the people. In 

 many cases the original state of things became reversed, inasmuch as 

 laws might originate with the people, and only require the sanction of 

 the senate ; or might have the power of law even without this 

 sanction. [TRIBUJTCS.] A still more formidable blow was inflicted 

 upon the power of the senate when the tribunes obtained the right of 

 invalidating its acta by their intercessio. [TBIBUNUS.] The power 

 which the senate exercised during the republic, when the tribunes did 

 not intercede, may be comprised under the following heads : 



1. The senate had the control of the public treasury (icrariuui) 

 (' Polyb.', vi. 13) ; the accounts of all the revenues were laid before the 

 senate, and no part of the public money could be expended without 

 their consent. Hence no consul or magistrate could raise an army, or 

 keep it at the expense of the state, unless he was authorised by the 

 senate. [Scipio, in Bioo. Div.] 



2. Crimes committed in Italy, such as treason, conspiracies, 

 poisoning, and murder, belonged to the cognizance of the senate ; 

 moreover, if any private individuals or any of the allied towns of 

 Italy had disputes among themselves, if they had done anything 

 deserving punishment, or if they required assistance or a garrison, all 

 this was within the power of the senate. (Polyb., vi. 11 ; cornp. Liv., 

 xxx. 26.) In cases, however, where a judicial seuteuce was required, 

 the senate appointed a person, but did not pronounce sentence itself. 

 (Cic., ' De Off.', i. 10 ; Val. Max., vii. 3, 4.) 



3. All ambassadors sent from Rome, and all commissioners charged 

 with the regulation of the affairs of a newly conquered province, were 

 nominated by the senate, and the ambassadors themselves were in 

 many cases members of the senate. All foreign ambassadors com- 

 municated with the Roman senate. (Polyb., I. c. ; and Livy, in 

 numerous passages.) Treaties concluded with foreign nations by a 

 Roman general required the sanction of the senate. 



4. The senate assigned to the consuls and prcctors their respective 

 provinces [PBOVINCIA], and the senate might at the end of a year 

 propose the prolongation of their imperium. 



5. The senate decreed all public thanksgivings (supplicationes) for 

 victories obtained by the generals of the republic ; and the senate alone 

 coulil confer on a victorious general the honour of a triumph or o au 

 ovatio. (Liv., v. 23 ; Cic., ' Philip.', xiv. 5.) 



6. The senate in times of great danger could delegate unlimited 

 power to the consuls ; and this was done by the formula, " videant 

 consules nequid respublica detrimenti capiat." The senate had also 

 the supreme superintendence in all matters uf religion, and decided 

 whether the worship of new gods was to be adopted or not. [SEBAPIS.] 



During the empire the senate lost its former character, for the 

 emperors became the sovereign, and the senate was a subordinate 

 power, and little more than a high court of justice. Respecting the 

 provinces of the senate, see PROVINCIA. The senators, however, were 

 always looked upon as persons of the highest rank. Vacancies were 

 filled by the emperor at discretion, chiefly with equites, whence the 

 equites are called semiuarium senatus. (Lamprid., ' Alex. Sev.', 10 ; 

 Joseph., ' Antiq. Jud.', xix. 1.) Constantino established a second 

 senate at Byzantium, and the emperor Julian conferred upon it the 

 privileges which were enjoyed by the senators of Rome. (Zosimus, iii. 

 11.) Both senates were still sometimes addressed by the emperors in 

 a imperial oration concerning matters of legislation, and each of the 

 senates still continued to be a high court of justice, to which the 

 emperors referred important criminal cases. The senatorial dignity 

 was now obtained either by descent, by the favour of the emperor, or 

 by virtue of having held some office at the imperial court. The 

 senators enjoyed many distinctions, but their burdens were exceedingly 

 heavy, for they had to pay a peculiar tax (follis) upon their landed 

 property, to give public games, and magnificent presents to the 

 emperors, and, in times of need, large donations to the people. The 

 emperors, therefore, contrived to elect into the senate the wealthiest 

 persons from all parts of the empire. (Walter, 'Gesch. d. Rom. 

 Rechts.') 



From the time of Diocletian the senate was only a shadow of its 

 former state, but it was still the highest object of the ambition of the 

 wealthy Romans. 



It now remains to mention some of the external insignia and the 

 privileges of the Roman senators. 



1. The latut clavtw, or tunica latidaria,OT a tunica with abroad 

 purple stripe, which was not sewed to it, but woven in it. 



2. A kind of short boots with the letter C on the top of the foot. 

 This C is generally interpreted to mean centum, and to refer to the 

 original number of a hundred (centum) senators. 



3. A particular place (orchestra) in the theatres and amphitheatres. 



