Roman Senate

Senate of the Roman Kingdom The senate was a political institution in the ancient Roman Kingdom. The Latin word senatus, borrowed into English as senate, is derived from senex ; the word thus means . The prehistoric Indo-Europeans who settled Italy in the centuries before the founding of Rome in 753 BC were structured into tribal communities, and these communities often included an aristocratic board of tribal elders. The early Roman family was called a gens or "clan", When the early Roman gentes were aggregating to form a common community, the patres from the leading clans were selected for the confederated board of elders that would become the Roman senate. When the king died, that sovereign power naturally reverted to the patres. 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. 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. 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, called conscripti, and increased the size of the senate to 300. The senate of the Roman Kingdom held three principal responsibilities: It functioned as the ultimate repository for the executive power, it served as the king's council, and it functioned as a legislative body in concert with the people of Rome. 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. After the senate gave its initial approval to the nominee, he was then formally elected by the people, and then received the senate's final approval. 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. 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 , 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. 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 on precedent and not in law. A senatus consultum, however, could serve to interpret a law. Through these decrees, the senate directed the magistrates, especially the Roman Consuls (the chief magistrates), in their prosecution of military conflicts. The senate also had an enormous degree of power over the civil government in Rome. This was especially the case with regard to its management of state finances, as only it could authorize the disbursal of public funds from the 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 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. After 202 BC, the office of dictator fell out of use, and was revived only two more times. It was replaced with the senatus consultum ultimum ("ultimate decree of the senate"), a senatorial decree that authorised the consuls to employ any means necessary to solve the crisis. 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 (in the Roman system of measurement, now approx. 1.48 km) outside it. The senate operated while under 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. 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. The senate meetings were public then referred an issue to the senators, who would discuss it in order of seniority. Despite dictators holding nominal power, 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, Senate of the Roman Empire in the Roman Forum, the seat of the imperial Senate 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 the actual authority of the imperial senate was negligible, and the emperor held the true power in the state. As such, membership in the senate came to be sought after by individuals seeking prestige and social standing, rather than actual authority. During the reigns of the first emperors, legislative, judicial, and electoral powers were all transferred from the Roman assemblies to the senate. Since the emperor held control over the senate, the senate acted as a vehicle through which he exercised his autocratic powers. 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. 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. 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, Under the empire, the power that the emperor held over the senate was absolute. 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, 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. 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. A verdict could not be appealed, but the emperor could pardon a convicted individual through a veto. The emperor Tiberius transferred all electoral powers from the assemblies to the senate, 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. Then, in 552, a number of senators were slain by the Ostrogothics 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, and it likely ceased to function as an institution with any real legislative power shortly after this time. It is not known exactly when the Roman senate disappeared in the West, but it appears to have been in the early 7th century, when Rome was under the dominion of the Exarchate of Ravenna. Records show that in both 578 and 580, the politically-impotent senate of Rome sent envoys to Constantinople along with pleas for help against the Lombards, who had invaded Italy ten years earlier. Later, in 593, Pope Gregory I gave a sermon in which he bemoaned the almost complete disappearance of the senatorial order and the decline of the prestigious institution, suggesting that by this date, the senate had officially ceased to function as a body. , originally built to house the revived Senate during the Roman Commune period Although the Gregorian register of 603 mentions the senate in reference to the acclamation of new statues of Emperor Phocas and Empress Leontia, scholars such as Ernst Stein and André Chastagnol have argued that this mention was likely nothing more than a ceremonial flourish. Subsequently, the word "senate" was used by the nobility of Rome to describe themselves as a collective class. This usage was not intended to link them institutionally with the ancient senate, but rather continued the long-standing Roman tradition that the city's nobility was equated to its senate. Occasionally in the Early Middle Ages, the title "senator" was used by those in positions of power—for instance, it was held by Crescentius the Younger (d. 998) and, in its feminine form (senatrix), by Marozia (d. 937)—but it appears to have been regarded at that time as simply a title of nobility. In 1144, usage of the "senator" title in a more traditional sense was revived, when the Commune of Rome attempted to establish a new senate in opposition to the temporal power of the nobles and the pope. As part of this plan, the Commune constructed a new senate house (the ) on the Capitoline Hill, apparently in the mistaken belief that this was the site of the ancient senate house. Most sources state that there were 56 senators in the revived senate, and modern historians have therefore interpreted this to indicate that there were four senators for each of the fourteen regiones of Rome. These senators elected as their leader Giordano Pierleoni, son of the Roman consul Pier Leoni, with the title patrician, since the term consul had been deprecated as a noble styling. The Commune came under constant pressure from the papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor during the second half of the twelfth century. In 1191, a popular uprising overthrew the 56-strong senate in favor of a single individual, styled Summus Senator, who became the head of the civil government of Rome. The first Summus Senator, a man named Benedetto Carushomo, ruled Rome for two years. Within a few years of Carushomo's rule, the multi-member senate was restored. This time, the institution was composed largely of nobles. Senate in the East The senate continued to exist in Constantinople. 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. In the second half of the 10th century a new office, proedros (), was created as head of the senate by Emperor Nicephorus Phocas. Up to the mid-11th century, only eunuchs could become proedros. Later this restriction was lifted and several proedri could be appointed, of which the senior proedrus, or protoproedrus (), 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 (, 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 Nicholas Kanabos as emperor in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. ==See also==