senate

Regal and republican Age Composition

In the time of the *Gracchi (c.133121 BC) the senate was a body of around 300
wealthy men of aristocratic birth, most of them ex-magistrates. Although the sources
tend to assume that this state of affairs had always existed, in fact it was the product of
historical development and change. Since in the early republic there were very few
magistrates, and iteration of office was common, it follows that there was a time when
either the majority of senators had never held a magistracy, or their number was
considerably less than 300. Probably both conclusions are true for the 5th cent. This
must cast doubt on the notion that the number 300 is connected with the three tribes and
thirty curiae (see CURIA (1)); in fact there is no basis for this theory in the ancient
sources, and tradition itself implicitly denies it in maintaining that *Romulus, who
founded the tribes (see TRIBUS) and curiae, chose 100 men to form the first senate.
Very little is actually known about the origins and early history of the senate.
Traditionally it was the council of the kings, then of the consuls. There is no reason to
think that it was ever an exclusively patrician body. Collectively the senators were
addressed as patres et conscripti; since the patres were *patricians, it would seem to
follow that the conscripti were not. The distinction was certainly very ancient, and it
may go back to the monarchy. Senators were chosen first by the kings, then by the
consuls. Festus (p. 290 Lindsay) tells us that they had a free choice, and that before the
lex Ovinia it was not considered disgraceful to be omitted from the senate. This can
only mean that membership was not fixed, but depended on the whim of the magistrates
in office; it clearly implies that before the lex Ovinia the senate was little more than an
ad hoc advisory council. Festus may or may not be right; but his statement is the only
evidence we have.
The date of the lex Ovinia is unknown, but it was probably after 339 and
certainly before 318 BC. It laid down that the censors were to choose the senate
according to fixed criteria; only men guilty of serious misconduct could be omitted from
the list. As a result membership became effectively lifelong, and expulsion from the
senate meant disgrace. The criteria of selection are unfortunately not recorded, but it
was probably as a consequence of this reform that ex-magistrates were chosen
automatically. By the later 3rd cent. ex-magistrates were permitted to take part in
sessions before being formally enrolled at the *census. The *censors nevertheless
retained the right to make up numbers by choosing additional senators, and to exclude
persons considered guilty of immoral behaviour or following disreputable professions.
*Freedmen and sons of freedmen were usually not admitted. It is also evident that
senators had to be qualified for membership of the equestrian order, which meant
ownership of landed property worth 400,000 sesterces. *Sulla increased the size of the
senate by adding 300 new members and making entry dependent on tenure of the
quaestorship; the number of *quaestors was raised to twenty to maintain numbers
thenceforth. *Caesar rewarded his supporters by admitting them to the senate, which in
45 BC had 900 members; under the triumvirate the figure rose to over a thousand, but
was reduced to around 600 by *Augustus.
Senators wore the latus *clavus and special shoes. They had reserved seats at
religious ceremonies and games. They were not allowed to leave Italy without the
senate's permission. Being excluded from state contracts and ownership of large ships
(see CLAUDIUS, Q.), they were predominantly a landowning class. Although heredity
was a strong recommendation for magisterial office, the senate was far from being an
exclusively hereditary body; it seems always to have contained numbers of new men

(i.e. first-generation senators; see NOVUS HOMO), particularly among the lower ranks
(though for a new man to rise to high office was naturally unusual).
Procedure
The senate was summoned by the presiding magistrates, either holders of *imperium or,
later, tribunes, according to an order of precedence. Sessions were held between dawn
and sunset, but were forbidden by a lex Pupia (2nd or 1st cent. BC) during the *comitia.
Meetings had to take place in Rome (see CURIA (2) ) or within a mile of the city
boundary, in a place both public and consecrated. The first sitting of the year was in the
temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
Sittings were held in private, but with open doors, the tribunes of the plebs (see
TRIBUNI PLEBIS) sitting in the vestibule in the period before their admission to
sessions (4th cent. BC?). A session opened with a statement by the chairman or another
magistrate, outlining the matter for discussion. Each senator then gave his opinion
(sententia) in order of rank--beginning with ex-censors (censorii), followed by
consulares, praetorii, and so on. The senior patrician ex-censor, who gave his opinion
first, was known as the princeps senatus. After Sulla the magistrate gave precedence to
the consuls designate or, in their absence, to a senator of consular rank, and princeps
senatus became a purely social title open to plebeians. Each senator spoke from his seat.
Freedom of speech was unlimited in the republic, but Augustus imposed a time-limit.
After the debate a vote was taken; the decree resulting from a positive vote was known
as a *senatus consultum. Sometimes a vote was taken directly after the opening
statement with no intervening debate; and on some issues a quorum was required. A
senatus consultum could be vetoed by the tribunes. Records of proceedings were kept
by the urban quaestors in the *aerarium, and in 59 BC Caesar ordered them to be
published (Suet. Caes. 20).
Functions
The senate's formal role was to advise the magistrates. Its advice covered all matters of
domestic and foreign policy, finance, and religion. In the 3rd and 2nd cents. it was
customary, but not obligatory, for magistrates (and tribunes) to submit legislative
proposals to the senate for discussion, and to obtain a senatus consultum before
presenting a bill to the comitia. The senate could also invalidate laws already passed by
pointing out technical flaws in procedure.
Since the senate included ex-magistrates who were effectively (after the lex
Ovinia) members for life, its decisions inevitably came to bind those of its members
who happened to be holding senior magistracies at any given time. And by the start of
the 3rd cent. the growth of the Roman state and the increasing complexity of its affairs
gave the senate an ever greater control of government business. It was the only
permanent body with the necessary knowledge and experience to supervise policy in a
wide range of fields. It controlled the state's finances, the levying and disposal of
military forces, the allocation of magisterial tasks (provinces; see PROVINCIA),
relations with foreign powers, and the maintenance of law and order in Rome and Italy.
It was the senate that decided whether to extend the period of a magistrate's command
(prorogatio imperii; see PRO CONSULE, PRO PRAETORE), and although the people
in the comitia centuriata had the final say on declarations of war and the ratification of
treaties, it is clear that, by the end of the 3rd cent. at least, they merely gave formal
assent to decisions taken in advance by the senate. The senate supervised the religious
life of the community, and the major priestly colleges consisted largely of senators. The
senate received reports of prodigies and decided on the appropriate action; and it was
the senate that ordered the performance of special religious ceremonies and decided on
the introduction of new cults.

In the late republic the senate claimed the right to wield absolute power in
certain circumstances. It could order dispensation from the observance of law, and
during the Gracchan period it asserted the right to declare a state of emergency by
passing its ultimate decree (*senatus consultum ultimum), which gave the magistrates
unfettered power to act as they saw fit. But these developments occurred at a time when
the senate's authority was being challenged by the populares (see OPTIMATES), and in
the succeeding decades it was completely undermined by armed force. The collapse of
the senate's authority marked the end of the republic.
GENERAL P. Willems, Le Snat de la rpublique romaine2 (1885); Mommsen, Rm.
Staatsr. 3/2; A. O'Brien Moore, RE suppl. 6, 660; E. Meyer, Rm. Staat u.
Staatsgedanke2 (1961); J. Guaudemet, Institutions de l'antiquit (1967); C. Nicolet,
Rome et le conqute du monde mditerranen2 (1979), 1, 357 ff.; M. BonnefondCoudry, Le Snat de la rpublique romaine (1989). On the social composition of the
senate in the republic: T. P. Wiseman, New Men in the Roman Senate (1971); G. P.
Burton and K. Hopkins, in K. Hopkins, Death and Renewal (1983), 31 ff.; I. Shatzman,
Senatorial Wealth in Roman Politics (1975); C. Nicolet, JRS 1976, 2038 (on the census
qualification of senators).
A. M.; T. J. Co.
The Imperial Age Under *Augustus and his successors far-reaching modifications of the
social origins and the corporate and individual functions of senators occurred. Despite
those changes the senatorial ordo remained the most important political and social body
in the empire, its first estate.
The ordo and its recruitment
By the end of the civil wars the ranks of senators had increased to about 1,000.
Augustus initiated a series of revisions of the senate of which the most important
occurred in 28 BC and 18 BC. After the latter the size of the senate was fixed at 600,
which remained its normal figure through the first two and a half centuries of the
Principate. A new property qualification of one million sesterces was introduced, which
served to differentiate more clearly the senatorial from the equestrian order (see
EQUITES). Sons of senators gained the automatic right to assume the latus *clavus at
17 years of age and to stand, later, for membership of the senate. Sons of senators
normally served for one year as a military tribune, then held a post in the vigintivirate
(see VIGINTISEXVIRI) before standing for election to the senate (through the
quaestorship; see QUAESTOR) at 25. Twenty quaestors were elected each year; from
the beginning of *Tiberius' reign the election of junior magistrates (most notably the
quaestors and praetors) was transferred to the senate.
The main thrust of Augustus' reforms was to introduce de iure a strong
hereditary element into the senate. However throughout the Principate some senatorial
families were impoverished by over-expenditure, others fell into political disfavour or
were eliminated; still other senatorial families had no surviving sons. In addition some
sons of senators probably (though this issue is disputed) chose not to try to follow in
their fathers' footsteps. Consequently in each generation opportunities arose for new
families, through the patronage of the emperors, to enter the senate. Emperors promoted
new men into the senate either through the grant of the latus clavus, which gave
individuals the right to stand for the quaestorship, or through direct *adlection. By these
means imperial *patronage continuously transformed the social origins of senators.
The influx of new families recruited from the lites of the provinces transformed
the geographic composition of the order. Under Augustus the senate remained primarily
Italian in origin. Under the Julio-Claudian emperors provincial senators, especially from
*Baetica and Gallia Narbonensis (see GAUL (TRANSALPINE) ), emerged. In the

course of the later 1st and 2nd cents. new families emerged from the north African and
eastern provinces, though very few senators ever came from the northern and Danubian
provinces. By the time of the Severan emperors over 50 per cent of senators were of
non-Italian origin. In the long term the social and geographic transformation of the
senate allowed the socio-political lite of the conquered to be gradually fused with the
lite of the conquerors. See next entry.
Functions and roles
Although financial policy, diplomacy, and military policy became the preserve of the
emperors, the senate still exercised certain important corporate functions. It acted as a
source of binding rule-making, as senatus consulta acquired the full force of law (see
SENATUS CONSULTUM); surviving legislation predominantly concerns the rules of
status and of inheritance and the maintenance of public order. As a court it tried its own
members, chiefly on charges of extortion. Most importantly it formally conferred
powers on new emperors (and members of their families), and the acknowledgement of
the senate was, therefore, the condition of legitimacy of any emperor. It also claimed the
right to declare them public enemies, condemn their memory (*damnatio memoriae)
and rescind their acts.
Senatorial membership, as in the republic, continued to be a precondition for
exercising key individual political and administrative roles. For example the civil and
military administration of the majority of the provinces lay in the hands of individual
senators in their role as provincial governors (proconsuls--see PRO CONSULE, PRO
PRAETORE, and legati Augusti--see LEGATI). Even in AD 200 29 out of 33 legions
were still commanded by senators. The civil and military posts, in Rome and the
provinces, allocated to senators were ranked in a clear hierarchy; some were reserved
for ex-praetors, others for ex-consuls. The most successful senators politically were
those who governed the senior provinces reserved for ex-consuls. Senators also
exercised direct influence on the administration, jurisdiction, and military policy of the
emperors through their membership of the *consilium principis. In short imperial rule
was predicated on the active participation of the empire's political lite formed by the
senate. Indeed in the 1st and 2nd cents. emperors, when they had no male heir, adopted
a senator as their successor (so *Nerva adopted *Trajan who, in turn, adopted
*Hadrian). When political legitimacy at Rome broke down and civil war occurred (as in
689 and 1937), it was senior senators who vied for the purple.
The third-century crisis and the later empire
The crisis of the 3rd cent. and major reforms by *Diocletian and *Constantine I
modified profoundly the political role and social characteristics of the senatorial order.
During the crisis many political and military offices were transferred on an ad hoc basis
to equestrians. This process was first codified by *Gallienus and then carried further by
Diocletian. By the end of his reign only a few civilian posts, such as proconsul of Africa
or Asia and prefect of the city of Rome (see PRAEFECTUS URBI), remained open to
senators.
Further substantial and complex reforms were introduced through the 4th cent.
Under Constantine a general fusion of the senatorial and equestrian orders occurred
whereby high-ranking equestrians were enrolled in the senate and senior equestrian
officers were converted into senatorial ones. In turn it became normal practice to confer
senatorial status on the holders of key military (e.g. duces, magistri militum (see DUX;
MAGISTER MILITUM) and fiscal (e.g. *comites of the sacrae largitiones and res
privata) offices. In consequence the number of senators increased to about 2,000 in the
4th cent. In a parallel development Constantine created a second senate at the newly
founded capital of *Constantinople whose membership also quickly rose to about 2,000.

A new socio-political hierarchy evolved within the senatorial order. By a law of

*Valentinian I of 372 three grades were codified, namely, in descending status, the
illustres, the spectabiles, and the clarissimi.
The senate of the later empire exhibits strong contrasts to its predecessors.
Politically, as a corporate body, it ceased to be an effective council of state. Power lay
with the emperor, his court, the *consistorium, and the comitatus. The residence of
emperors at sites such as *Ravenna and Milan (*Mediolanum) of itself diminished the
importance of Rome and its senate. Socially, the enlarged order was far more
heterogeneous. Traditional aristocratic families co-existed with parvenu military men of
humble origin. Although a senator's son was by right a senator (at the level of a
clarissimus), the higher grades of the order were achieved by the tenure of the
appropriate office. Status had become a reward for, rather than a precondition of, high
office.
THE SENATE OF THE PRINCIPATE Syme, Rom. Rev.; J. Crook, Consilium Principis
(1955); M. Hammond, JRS 1957, 74 ff.; Syme, Tacitus; W. Eck, Senatoren von
Vespasian bis Hadrian (1970); Millar, ERW; G. Alfldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand
unter den Antoninen (1977); R. P. Saller, Personal Patronage under the Early Empire
(1982); K. Hopkins, Death and Renewal (1983); G. Alfldy, The Social History of
Rome (1985); R. Talbert, The Senate of Imperial Rome (1984); F. Jacques, Annales
ESC 1988, 1287 ff.; P. M. M. Leunissen, Konsuln und Konsulare in der Zeit von
Commodus bis Severus Alexander (183235 n. Chr.) (1989).
THIRD-CENTURY CRISIS AND LATER EMPIRE G. Barbieri, L'albo senatorio da
Settimio Severo a Carino (1952); P. Petit, Ant. Class. 1957, 347 ff.; A. Chastagnol, La
Prfecture urbaine Rome sous le bas-empire (1960); Jones, Later Rom. Emp., ch. 15;
A. Chastagnol, Le Snat sous le rgne d'Odoacre (1966), and Revue historique 1970,
305 ff.; H. G. Pflaum, Historia 1976, 109 ff.; A. Demandt, Chiron 1980, 609 ff.; G.
Alfldy, The Social History of Rome (1985); J. Matthews, Western Aristocracies and
Imperial Court AD 3644252 (1990).
G. P. B.