Senate of the Roman Empire

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Politics of ancient Rome
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Constitution
Political institutions
Assemblies
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Ordinary magistrates
Extraordinary magistrates
Public law
Senatus consultum ultimum
Titles and honours

The Senate of the Roman Empire was a political institution in the ancient Roman Empire. After the fall of the Roman Republic, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the Roman Senate to the Roman Emperor. Beginning with the first emperor, Augustus, the Emperor and the Senate were technically two co-equal branches of government. In practice, however, the actual authority of the imperial Senate was negligible, as the Emperor held the true power of the state. As such, membership in the senate became 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. However, since the control that the Emperor held over the senate was absolute, the Senate acted as a vehicle through which the Emperor exercised his autocratic powers.

Procedure

The first emperor, Augustus, inherited a Senate whose membership had been increased to 900 senators by his adoptive father, Julius Caesar. Augustus sought to reduce the size of the Senate, and did so through three revisions to the list of senators.

sesterces.[2]

Under the Empire, as was the case during the late Republic, one could become a senator by being elected quaestor. Under the Empire, however, one could only stand for election to the Quaestorship if one was of senatorial rank, and to be of senatorial rank, one had to be the son of a senator.[1] If an individual was not of senatorial rank, there were two ways for that individual to become a senator. Under the first method, the Emperor granted that individual the authority to stand for election to the Quaestorship,[1] while under the second method, the Emperor appointed that individual to the Senate by issuing a decree (the adlectio).[3]

Beginning in 9 BC, with the passage of Augustus' lex Julia de senatu habendo,[2] an official list of Senators (the album senatorium) was maintained and revised each year. Individuals were added to the list if they had recently satisfied the requirements for entry into the Senate, and were removed from the list if they no longer satisfied the requirements necessary to maintain Senate membership.[3] The list named each senator by order of rank.[3] The Emperor always outranked all of his fellow senators and was followed by "Consuls" (the highest-ranking magistrate) and former Consuls, then by "Praetors" (the next highest ranking magistrate) and former Praetors, and so on. A senator's tenure in elective office was considered when determining rank, while Senators who had been elected to an office did not necessarily outrank Senators who had been appointed to that same office by the Emperor[3]

Members of the senatorial order were distinguished by a broad reddish-purple stripe edging their

togas
– the formal dress of all Roman citizens.

Under the Empire, the power that the Emperor held over the Senate was absolute, which was due, in part, to the fact that the Emperor held office for life.[4] During Senate meetings, the Emperor sat between the two Consuls,[5] 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 lower ranking senators, although the Emperor could speak at any time.[5] Besides the Emperor, Consuls, and Praetors could also preside over the Senate.

The Senate ordinarily met in the

Ides (around the fifteenth day of the month), although scheduled meetings occurred more frequently in September and October. Other meetings were held on an ad hoc basis.[3] Under Augustus, a quorum was set at 400 senators, although eventually excessive absenteeism forced the Senate to lower the number of senators necessary for a quorum, and, on some matters, to revoke the quorum rules altogether.[5]

Most of the bills that came before the Senate were presented by the Emperor or his supporters in the body. In the early Principate, Augustus and Tiberius made conscious efforts to hide their influence on the body, lobbying in private instead of directly proposing legislation.[2] Since no senator could stand for election to a magisterial office without the emperor's approval, senators usually did not vote against bills that had been presented by the emperor.[citation needed] If a senator disapproved of a bill, he usually showed his disapproval by not attending the Senate meeting on the day that the bill was to be voted on.[6] Each emperor selected a quaestor to compile the proceedings of the Senate into a document (the Acta Senatus), which included proposed bills, official documents, and a summary of speeches that had been presented before the Senate. The document was archived, while parts of it were published (in a document called the Acta Diurna or "daily doings") and then distributed to the public.[6]

According to the

Historia Augusta (Elagabalus 4.2 and 12.3) emperor Elagabalus had his mother or grandmother take part in Senate proceedings. "And Elagabalus was the only one of all the emperors under whom a woman attended the Senate like a man, just as though she belonged to the senatorial order" (David Magie's translation). According to the same work, Elagabalus also established a women's senate called the senaculum, which enacted rules to be applied to matrons, regarding clothing, chariot riding, the wearing of jewelry, etc. (Elagabalus 4.3 and Aurelian 49.6). Before this, Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero, had been listening to Senate proceedings, concealed behind a curtain, according to Tacitus
(Annales, 13.5).

The Curia Julia in the Roman Forum, the seat of the imperial Senate

Powers

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.[4] The legislative powers of the Imperial Senate were principal of a financial and an administrative nature, although the senate did retain a range of powers over the provinces.[4] The Senate could also regulate festivals and religious cults, grant special honors, excuse an individual (usually the Emperor) from legal liability, manage temples and public games, and even enact tax laws (but only with the acquiescence of the Emperor).[4] However, it had no real authority over either the state religion or over public lands.

During the early Roman Empire, all judicial powers that had been held by the Roman assemblies were also transferred to the Senate. For example, the senate now held jurisdiction over criminal trials. In these cases, a consul presided, the senators constituted the jury, and the verdict was handed down in the form of a decree (senatus consultum),[4][7] and, while a verdict could not be appealed, the Emperor could pardon a convicted individual through a veto. Each province that was under the jurisdiction of the Senate had its own court, and, upon the recommendation of a consul, decisions of these provincial courts could be appealed to the Senate.[7]

In theory, the Senate elected new emperors, while in conjunction with the popular assemblies, it would then confer upon the new emperor his command powers (imperium).[7] After an emperor had died or abdicated his office, the Senate would often deify him, although sometimes it would pass a decree (damnatio memoriae or "damnation from memory") which would attempt to cancel every trace of that emperor from the life of Rome, as if he had never existed.[7] The emperor Tiberius transferred all electoral powers from the assemblies to the Senate,[7] and, while theoretically, the senate elected new magistrates, the approval of the Emperor was always needed before an election could be finalized. Despite this fact, however, elections remained highly contested and vigorously fought.[7]

Under

Equestrian order were employed in administrative positions that earlier emperors had reserved for freedmen. In the case of the Senate this expanded responsibility ensured an increased opportunity for providing advice and exercising authority. At the end of the Flavian dynasty the Senate was able to choose Nerva as the new emperor – the first time under the Empire that such an initiative had been possible.[8] However, after the death of Marcus Aurelius, the Senate became increasingly irrelevant, as Emperors become more hostile to its members and less frequently consulted it.[2] By the Severan dynasty, the Senatorial class was also increasingly separated from the actual operations of government, which were increasingly taken over by equestrians and other members of the Imperial bureaucracy.[2]

Around 300 AD, the Emperor Diocletian enacted a series of constitutional reforms. In one such reform, Diocletian asserted the right of the Emperor to take power without the theoretical consent of the Senate, thus depriving the Senate of its status as the ultimate depository of supreme power. Diocletian's reforms also ended whatever illusion had remained that the Senate had independent legislative, judicial, or electoral powers. The Senate did, however, retain its legislative powers over public games in Rome, and over the senatorial order. The Senate also retained the power to try treason cases, and to elect some magistrates, but only with the permission of the Emperor. In the final years of the Empire, the Senate would sometimes try to appoint their own emperor, such as in the case of Eugenius who was later defeated by forces loyal to Theodosius I. The Senate remained the last stronghold of the traditional Roman religion in the face of the spreading Christianity, and several times attempted to facilitate the return of the Altar of Victory, first removed by Constantius II, to the senatorial curia.

Lateran Basilica
.

Post-Imperial period

After the fall of the

Theoderic the Great
and Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus supported Pope Symmachus.

The peaceful co-existence of senatorial and barbarian rule continued until the Ostrogothic leader

Byzantine Senate
survived until at least the mid-14th century, before the ancient institution finally vanished from history.

See also

References

  • Abbott, Frank Frost (1901). A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. Elibron Classics (
    ISBN 0-543-92749-0
    ).
  • Byrd, Robert (1995). The Senate of the Roman Republic. U.S. Government Printing Office, Senate Document 103-23.
  • Cicero, Marcus Tullius (1841). The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero: Comprising his Treatise on the Commonwealth; and his Treatise on the Laws. Translated from the original, with Dissertations and Notes in Two Volumes. By Francis Barham, Esq. London: Edmund Spettigue. Vol. 1.
  • Lintott, Andrew (1999). The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press (
    ISBN 0-19-926108-3
    ).
  • Polybius (1823). The General History of Polybius: Translated from the Greek. By James Hampton. Oxford: Printed by W. Baxter. Fifth Edition, Vol 2.
  • Taylor, Lily Ross (1966). Roman Voting Assemblies: From the Hannibalic War to the Dictatorship of Caesar. The University of Michigan Press (
    ISBN 0-472-08125-X
    ).

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Abbott, 381
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-691-05400-2
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e Abbott, 382
  4. ^ a b c d e Abbott, 385
  5. ^ a b c Abbott, 383
  6. ^ a b Abbott, 384
  7. ^ a b c d e f Abbott, 386
  8. ^ Mose Hadas pages 63-65 "Imperial Rome",|Time-Life International 1966
  9. ^ Jeffrey Richards. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476-752, p. 246

Further reading

  • A. Cameron, The Later Roman Empire, (Fontana Press, 1993).
  • M. Crawford, The Roman Republic, (Fontana Press, 1978).
  • E. S. Gruen, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (U California Press, 1974)
  • Ihne, Wilhelm. Researches Into the History of the Roman Constitution. William Pickering. 1853.
  • A. Lintott, The Constitution of the Roman Republic (Oxford University Press, 1999)
  • F. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World, (Duckworth, 1977, 1992).
  • Mommsen, Theodor. Roman Constitutional Law. 1871-1888
  • Richard J.A. Talbert, The Senate of Imperial Rome (Princeton: University Press, 1994)
  • Tighe, Ambrose. The Development of the Roman Constitution. D. Apple & Co. 1886.
  • Von Fritz, Kurt. The Theory of the Mixed Constitution in Antiquity. Columbia University Press, New York. 1975.
  • Cambridge Ancient History, Volumes 9–13.

Primary sources

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