The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being founded in the first days of the city (traditionally founded in 753 BC). It survived the fall of the kings in 509 BC, the fall of the Roman Republic in the first century BC, the split of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, and the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.

During the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, the tyrant Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was overthrown following a coup d'état led by Lucius Junius Brutus that had been orchestrated in the senate.[1]

During the early Republic, the senate was politically weak, while the executive magistrates were quite powerful. Since the transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was probably gradual, it took several generations before the senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic, the senate reached the apex of its republican power. The late Republic saw a decline in the senate's power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.

After the transition of the Republic into the Principate, the Senate lost much of its political power as well as its prestige. Following the constitutional reforms of the emperor Diocletian, the senate became politically irrelevant, and never regained the power that it had once held. When the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the senate was reduced to a municipal body. This image was reinforced when the emperor Constantius II created an additional senate in Constantinople. After the Western Roman Empire fell in 476, the senate in the west functioned for a time under barbarian rule before being restored after reconquest of much of the Western Roman Empire's territories during the reign of Justinian I, until it ultimately disappeared. However, the Eastern senate survived in Constantinople, before the ancient institution finally vanished there too.

Senate of the Roman Kingdom

Main articles: Senate of the Roman Kingdom and Constitution of the Roman Kingdom

The Senate of the Roman Kingdom was a political institution in the ancient Roman Kingdom. The word senate derives from the Latin word senex, which means "old man"; the word thus means "assembly of elders". The prehistoric Indo-Europeans who settled Italy in the centuries before the legendary founding of Rome in 753 BC[2] were structured into tribal communities,[3] and these communities often included an aristocratic board of tribal elders.[4] The early Roman family was called a gens or "clan",[3] and each clan was an aggregation of families under a common living male patriarch, called a pater (the Latin word for "father").[5] When the early Roman gentes were aggregating to form a common community, the patres from the leading clans were selected[6] for the confederated board of elders (what would become the Roman Senate).[5] Over time, the patres came to recognize the need for a single leader, and so they elected a king (rex),[5] and vested in him their sovereign power.[7] When the king died, that sovereign power naturally reverted back to the patres.[5]

According to Livy the Senate, initially consisting of 100 men, was created by Rome's first king, Romulus. The descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class [8]

The senate of the Roman Kingdom held three principal responsibilities: It functioned as the ultimate repository for the executive power,[9] it served as the council to the king, and it functioned as a legislative body in concert with the People of Rome.[10] During the years of the monarchy, the senate's most important function was to elect new kings. While the king was technically elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose each new king. The period between the death of one king, and the election of a new king, was called the interregnum,[9] during which time the Interrex nominated a candidate to replace the king.[11] After the senate gave its initial approval to the nominee, he was then formally elected by the people,[12] and then received the senate's final approval.[11] The senate's most significant task, outside of regal elections, was in its capacity as the king's council, and while the king could ignore any advice offered to him by the senate, the senate's growing prestige helped make the advice that it offered increasingly difficult to ignore. Technically the senate could also make new laws,^{[citation needed]} although it would be incorrect to view the senate's decrees as "legislation" in the modern sense. Only the king could decree new laws, although he often involved both the senate and the Curiate Assembly (the popular assembly) in the process.[10]

Senate of the Roman Republic

Main articles: Constitution of the Roman Republic and Senate of the Roman Republic

Representation of a sitting of the Roman Senate: Cicero attacks Catilina, from a 19th century fresco in Palazzo Madama, Rome, house of the Italian Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. The senate passed decrees called senatus consultum, which in form constituted "advice" from the senate to a magistrate. While these advices did not hold legal force, they usually were obeyed in practice.[13] 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 in precedent, and not in law. A senatus consultum, however, could serve to interpret a law.[14]

Through theses advices, 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 regards to its management of state finances, as only it could authorize the disbursal of public fund from the treasury. As the Roman Empire 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 the senate also 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). However, after 202 the office of Dictator fell out use (and was revived only two more times) and was replaced with the senatus consultum ultimum ("ultimate decree of the senate"), a senatorial decree which authorised the consuls to employ any means necessary to solve the crisis.[15]

While senate meetings could take place either inside or outside of the formal boundary of the city (the pomerium), no meeting could take place more than a mile outside of the pomerium.[16] The senate operated while under various 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.[17]

Meetings usually began at dawn, and a magistrate who wished to summon the senate had to issue a compulsory order.[18] The senate meetings were public,[16] and were directed by a presiding magistrate, usually a Consul.[7] While in session, the senate had the power to act on its own, and even against the will of the presiding magistrate if it wished. The presiding magistrate began each meeting with a speech,[19] and then referred an issue to the senators, who would discuss the issue by order of seniority.[16] Senators had several other ways in which they could influence (or frustrate) a presiding magistrate. For example, all senators had to speak before a vote could be held, and since all meetings had to end by nightfall,[13] a senator could talk a proposal to death (a filibuster or diem consumere) if he could keep the debate going until nightfall.[19] When it was time to call a vote, the presiding magistrate could bring up whatever proposals he wished, and every vote was between a proposal and its negative.[20] 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 voted on by a voice vote or by a show of hands. If there was no veto, and the matter was of a significant nature, there was usually a physical division of the house,[16] with senators voting by taking a place on either side of the chamber.

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Roman Senate

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Senate of the Roman Kingdom

Senate of the Roman Republic