Roman Senate

• 1. Origins And Early Kingdom

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  The Roman Senate began as a council of one hundred men in the year 753 BC, when Rome was founded. Romulus selected these first senators from the leading clans to advise him on matters of state. Each clan contributed a pater, or patriarch, who formed an aristocratic board of elders within the tribal communities that settled Italy before the city's founding. When the king died, sovereign power reverted to these patres until they elected a successor. The senate held three principal responsibilities during the monarchy: it served as the ultimate repository for executive power, acted as the king's council, and functioned as a legislative body alongside the people. Lucius Tarquinius Priscus later expanded the group by choosing another hundred senators from minor families, creating the patres minorum gentium. By 509 BC, after the overthrow of King Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, Lucius Junius Brutus and Publius Valerius Publicola increased the senate size to three hundred members. They chose new men called conscripti from among the leading equites to replace those executed by the last king.

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• 2. Republican Apex And Decline

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  During the middle Republic, the Senate reached its peak authority over fiscal matters and provincial administration. It controlled the treasury and distributed grants to Censors while overseeing judicial proceedings in extreme cases of violence across Italy. Senators wore distinctive togas with broad purple stripes and maroon shoes to signify their status. Meetings began at dawn inside buildings dedicated to the gods, following sacrifices and searches for divine omens. A presiding magistrate usually a consul opened each session with a speech before referring issues to the assembly. Any senator could speak before a vote was taken, allowing a single member to delay legislation through extended debate known as diem consumere. The senatus consultum ultimum authorized consuls to use any means necessary during emergencies after 202 BC when the office of dictator fell out of regular use. Property ownership worth one million sesterces became required for membership by Augustus's time, excluding most plebeians from early participation despite later admissions. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus initiated reforms that eroded this power structure beginning in the late Republic era.

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• 3. Imperial Subjugation

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  Augustus reduced the senate size from nine hundred members to six hundred even though only about two hundred senators were active at any given time. Legislative judicial and electoral powers shifted entirely from Roman assemblies to the Senate under imperial rule. The emperor sat between the two consuls during meetings and often acted as the presiding officer himself. Senators could not stand for election to magisterial offices without imperial approval making opposition rare. If a senator disapproved of an imperial bill he typically chose not to attend the meeting rather than voting against it. Tiberius transferred all electoral powers from the assemblies to the Senate requiring his consent before elections concluded. Judicial authority over criminal trials moved to the Senate where senators formed juries while consuls presided. Emperor Elagabalus allowed his mother or grandmother to participate in proceedings like men according to historical records. Agrippina the Younger listened to Senate debates concealed behind a curtain before her son Nero took the throne.

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• 4. Diocletianic Reforms

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  Emperor Diocletian enacted constitutional reforms around 300 AD that stripped the Senate of its status as supreme power repository. He asserted the right of emperors to take power without theoretical Senate consent ending illusions of independent legislative or judicial authority. The Senate retained limited powers over public games in Rome and the senatorial order itself but lost control over treason cases except with imperial permission. Several times the Senate attempted to appoint their own emperor such as Eugenius who was defeated by forces loyal to Theodosius I. These attempts marked the final struggles of traditional Roman religion against spreading Christianity within the institution. The Altar of Victory had been removed by Constantius II multiple times before the Senate tried to restore it to the Curia Julia. Diocletian's changes ensured that no remaining illusion existed regarding Senate independence from imperial will.

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• 5. Western Disappearance

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  After Romulus Augustulus was deposed in 476 AD, the Senate functioned under Odoacer until 489 and then Ostrogothic rule until 535. Prominent families like the Anicii rose during this period while the princeps senatus served as the right hand of barbarian leaders. Theodahad took senators hostage when war broke out between him and Emperor Justinian I. In 552 many senators were slain by Ostrogoths as revenge for King Totila's death. Pope Gregory I delivered a sermon in 593 bemoaning the almost complete disappearance of the senatorial order stating that since the Senate failed the people perished. Records show envoys sent pleas for help against Lombard invaders in both 578 and 580. The Gregorian register mentions the Senate in 603 regarding statues of Emperor Phocas but scholars argue this was merely ceremonial flourish. Any remnants disappeared in 630 when Pope Honorius I converted the Curia Julia into Sant'Adriano al Foro church. The title senator continued as an honorific among nobility like Crescentius the Younger who died in 998.

• 6. Eastern Continuity

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  The Senate survived in Constantinople through the thirteenth century evolving into an institution called synkletos or assembly. It comprised all current or former holders of senior ranks plus their descendants representing collective wealth and power during the sixth and seventh centuries. Emperor Nicephorus Phocas created the proedros office in the second half of the tenth century to serve as head of the Senate. Until mid-eleventh century only eunuchs could become proedros before restrictions were lifted allowing multiple appointments. Meetings occurred either as silentium with only magistrates present or conventus open to all syncletics. The Senate existed until at least 1204 when its last known act involved electing Nicholas Kanabos as emperor during the Fourth Crusade. This eastern body differed fundamentally from its Roman predecessor while maintaining continuity through centuries of imperial rule.