losely akin both to Sallustius and to Tacitus. 1 All three sat in the Senate of Rome and governed provinces; new-comers to the

olicy was largely directed by ex-consuls. These men ruled, as did the Senate , not in virtue of written law, but through auctor

older and dignity for life: it ennobled a family for ever. Within the Senate , itself an oligarchy, a narrow ring, namely the n

nobiles, though a wider class, formed yet a distinct minority in the Senate . The nobiles are predominant: yet in the last g

gularly well-documented epoch of history. Not mere admission to the Senate but access to the consulate was jealously guarded

roken into the citadel of the nobility:4 he was less assertive in the Senate , more candid to his intimate friends. There was n

and parliamentary character, not by the ostensible opposition between Senate and People, Optimates and Populares, nobiles and

république romaine I (1878), 427 ff., established this total for the Senate of 55 B.C. 2 Sallust, BJ 63, 6 (cf. BC 23, 6):

hen he set them in control of the law-courts and in opposition to the Senate . The Equites belonged, it is true, to the same so

wealth, repute and influence could easily have procured a seat in the Senate . 4 But Atticus did not wish to waste his money on

heir partners, allies or advocates. Concord and firm alliance between Senate and knights would therefore arrest revolution or

It took shape at first in his consulate as concordia ordinum between Senate and knights against the improbi, but later widene

er, who naturally invoked the specious and venerable authority of the Senate . 1 But there were to be found in their ranks a fe

t had not previously reached the consulate. 5 Philippus steeled the Senate to take action against Lepidus (Sallust, Hist. I,

iance and vigour were lacking. Hortensius, dominant in law-courts and Senate , flaunted pomp and decoration in his life as in h

might seem destined by wealth, family, and paramount influence in the Senate to sustain the part of a great conservative state

sumably in the period 68-63 B.C. On the influence of Crassus with the Senate in 70 B.C., note esp. Plutarch, Pompeius 22: ĸαὶ

5 The same year furnished an added testimony of his temper. When the Senate held debate concerning the associates of Catilina

the People was flat and verbose, saying nothing. 3 No happier in the Senate , the conqueror of the East neglected to praise th

e by Pompeius in the East. Pompeius requested their acceptance by the Senate , all in one measure: Lucullus insisted on debate,

the knights who farmed the taxes of Asia requested a rebate from the Senate , Cato denounced their rapacity and repelled their

ideal of a conservative union of all classes bound in loyalty to the Senate and guided by modest and patriotic principes. 2 W

ch was harmless enough, had he not been emboldened to announce in the Senate an attack upon the legislation of Caesar’s consul

e Parthians. 2 Caesar complied. Pompeius proclaimed submission to the Senate as a solemn duty. 3 The legion was not withdrawn,

Curio became a popular hero, and the People was incited against the Senate . The threat of a coalition between Pompeius and t

hrow over his ally. On December 1st Curio’s proposal came up in the Senate again, revealing an overpowering majority against

f Caesar’s best marshal, T. Labienus. 6 Then followed debate in the Senate , public attempts at mediation and negotiation in

tly, allies of Pompeius: Lentulus Sura (cos.71) was expelled from the Senate by the censors of 70. But Clodianus (cos. 72, cen

d for the government and on the plea of legitimacy), a faction in the Senate worked the constitution against Caesar. The proco

the oligarchy. Further, the proconsul’s proposals as conveyed to the Senate were moderate and may not be dismissed as mere ma

of a Caesarian tribune had revealed, an overwhelming majority in the Senate , nearly four hundred against twenty-two, wished b

mall faction misrepresented the true wishes of a vast majority in the Senate , in Rome, and in Italy. They pretended that the i

in the towns of Italy would rally in defence of the authority of the Senate and the liberties of the Roman People, that all t

years, and Pompeius the Dictator would have been assassinated in the Senate by honourable men, at the foot of his own statue.

ty and the character of those adherents with whom he supplemented the Senate and reinforced the oligarchy of government, an im

s voted the Dictatorship for life. About the same time decrees of the Senate ordained that an oath of allegiance should be tak

ns and decisions in the company of his intimates and secretaries: the Senate voted but did not deliberate. As the Dictator was

n of one man instead of the rule of the law, the constitution and the Senate ; it announced the triumph soon or late of new for

ential of the consulars, youth and ambition in the lower ranks of the Senate turned with alacrity to a politician whose boast

merge ex-tribunes noted for past legislation or for opposition to the Senate , a steady source of recruitment to the ranks of h

ompeius thinned the enemies of ordered government, and a purge of the Senate soon produced another crop of ‘homines calamitosi

s a valuable weapon. In 70 B.C. two Pompeian censors had cleansed the Senate of undesirables. 4 Twenty years later, on the ver

censor on his side, Ap. Claudius, who strove to expel Curio from the Senate . His colleague Piso thwarted that move, but was u

ipsi in potestate sunt reges. ’ 3 Compare Catilina’s remarks in the Senate , Sallust, BC 31, 7: ‘sibi, Patricio homini, cuius

man knights: but Pansa, and possibly Hirtius, had already entered the Senate . 4 Hirtius was a comfortable person of scholarly

r constitutional bar or provision. From six hundred Caesar raised the Senate to nine hundred members,3 and he increased the to

litical justice, partisans of all categories secured admission to the Senate by standing for quaestorship or tribunate or by d

memorials of history. Sulla, they said, put common soldiers into the Senate : but the formidable company of the Sullan centuri

as requisite no exorbitant condition. Sons of freedmen had sat in the Senate before now, furtive and insecure, under the menac

han all that, Caesar elevated men from the provinces to a seat in the Senate of Rome. Urban humour blossomed into scurrilous v

en of an alien community allied to Rome. Balbus did not yet enter the Senate . His young nephew, courageous and proud, cruel an

ut renders it hard to understand the composition and character of the Senate before his Dictatorship NotesPage=>080 1 C

gain, to say nothing of more than two hundred unknown to history, the Senate after Sulla must have contained in high proportio

blished. Cicero shuddered to think that he would have to sit in the Senate in the sight and presence of the rehabilitated Ga

es or grateful clients. Balbus, Oppius and Matius had not entered the Senate they did not need to, being more useful elsewhere

fortune of his parent these admirable men and others now adorned the Senate of Rome, augmented in personal standing to match

icero: he commanded them. 2 Above all, Caesar recruited for his new Senate the propertied classes of the Italian towns, men

imely abandonment of the Italian cause Rome’s enemy entered the Roman Senate . 2 But the vanquished party in the Bellum Itali

licum and the Marian sedition was not richly represented in the Roman Senate , even by renegades. Pompeius Strabo had a large f

in act and policy, no man from remoter Italy whom he helped into the Senate , no novus homo for whom he strove in defiance of

of the Roman State. It was no part of Cicero’s policy to flood the Senate with municipal men and capture for imported merit

revolution, provoked a sacred and transient union of interest between Senate and knights. 5 The episode also revealed what eve

Acerrae. 2 Some of Caesar’s municipal partisans were already in the Senate before the outbreak of the Civil War, though no p

anachronistic and not the true motive of Caesar’s augmentation of the Senate . He brought in his own partisans, men of substanc

on-Latin names are casually revealed in the lowest ranks of the Roman Senate , before Sulla as well as after, borne by NotesP

n names. The family and repute of certain Italici now admitted to the Senate must not obscure the numerous new senators from c

aught them a sharp lesson. Nor would a seat in the lower ranks of the Senate at Rome have been an extreme honour and unmixed b

however, sided with the moderate and prudent Hirtius. He summoned the Senate to meet on the following day in the Temple of Tel

(1934), 201 ff. PageBook=>098 On the morning of March 17th the Senate met. Antonius took charge of the debate, at once

re passed. On the insistence of Caesar’s father- in-law, L. Piso, the Senate decided to recognize the Dictator’s will, grantin

t, at once and for ever, the chance of gaining an ascendancy over the Senate . The people, unfriendly to begin with, turned s

ce they were praetors, should have usurped authority and summoned the Senate to meet upon the Capitol, it was afterwards urged

istracy, the auctoritas of the ex-consuls and the acquiescence of the Senate were requisite. Of the consuls, Antonius was not

re moderate men and lovers of peace, representing a large body in the Senate , whether Caesarian or neutral. The Senate, thinne

ere left. 1 Hence a lack of experience, ability and leadership in the Senate , sorely to be felt in the course of the next eigh

able rabble turned a deaf ear; for the august traditions of the Roman Senate and the Roman People they had no sympathy at all.

e shows and the triumphs of the Dictator. In Caesar’s defiance of the Senate and his triumph over noble adversaries, they too

uneral will be debated: it was certainly in his interest to alarm the Senate and reinforce the argument for firm concord in th

under another appellation. At the end of March or early in April the Senate allotted consular provinces for the following yea

2, 98 f.) clearly patronage and a means of admitting partisans to the Senate in an orderly fashion. 2 As emerges from Ad Att

vil war again. Deplored by the Liberators, the lack of leaders in the Senate was a strong factor for concord. The surviving co

interests, especially plebs and veterans, and the acquiescence of the Senate . A move to one side would alienate the other. Hit

and the veterans, Antonius was forced into a policy that alarmed the Senate and gave his enemies a pretext for action. Thus h

vain protestation. 2 Hirtius too was displeased. 3 The meeting of the Senate on June 1st was sparsely attended. But Antonius c

an anomalous factor. On June 5th, at the instigation of Antonius, the Senate appointed Brutus and Cassius to an extraordinary

pt to display in public the golden chair voted to the Dictator by the Senate and the diadem vainly offered by Antonius at the

ent that there would be criticism of the consul at the meeting of the Senate announced for August 1st; it may also have been k

e raised against Caesar’s heir. The word of the veterans silenced the Senate of Rome. When L. Piso spoke, at the session of Au

mission voted on June 5th. Now, early in August, Antonius induced the Senate to grant them the harmless provinces of Crete and

mpetitor was now beginning to force him to choose at last between the Senate and the veterans. The Senate was hostile: yet the

efforts towards the more obscure of the Caesarian novi homines in the Senate , or, failing them, to knights, to financiers and

e consul went farther with his Caesarian and popular policy. In the Senate on September 1st Antonius proposed that a day in

or high treason. This time there was criticism and opposition in the Senate on the following day both Cicero and P. Servilius

ccupied the Forum on November 10th. He had hoped for a meeting of the Senate and public support from senior statesmen. In vain

cutions. Disturbing rumours brought him back to Rome. He summoned the Senate to meet on November 24th, intending to have Octav

ty of Octavianus. The consul returned to Rome. On November 28th the Senate met by night upon the Capitol. It was later alleg

ave vetoed the measure: he could not afford a fresh conflict with the Senate and a fresh rebuff. In haste Antonius proposed a

mn review at Tibur, where not only the troops but a great part of the Senate and many private persons swore an oath of allegia

98 ff. PageBook=>127 Caesarian leader his primacy was menaced. Senate , plebs and veterans were mobilized against him. H

al, not the considered policy of a whole class. Octavianus needed the Senate as well. He hoped to win sympathy, if not support

young adventurer required the open backing of senior statesmen in the Senate : through their auctoritas he might acquire recogn

er, RA, 407. Ch. X THE SENIOR STATESMAN PageBook=>135 IN the Senate three men of consular rank had spoken against Ant

come to Rome and condone Caesar’s acts and policy by presence in the Senate . Courage, but also fear he was intimidated by the

o settled conditions threw him into a deep depression. He shunned the Senate , the theatre of his old triumphs. With the passin

ude. ’3 But Cicero was able to hold out against Caesar. Though in the Senate he was once moved to celebrate the clemency and m

Then came the Ides of March and, two days later, the meeting of the Senate in the Temple of Tellus, when Cicero, like other

for the new and precarious concord, Cicero was never even seen in the Senate . In spring and summer the cause of ordered govern

15, 29, ι: ‘Sextum scutum abicere nolebam. ’ PageBook=>140 the Senate ; there would be a meeting of the Senate on August

m. ’ PageBook=>140 the Senate; there would be a meeting of the Senate on August 1st and some prospect that Brutus and C

ions for leaving Italy. L. Piso, he learned, had indeed spoken in the Senate but with nobody to support him. The sanguine hope

fort or confidence. Back in Rome, Cicero refrained from attending the Senate on the first day of September. Antonius uttered t

public. He resolved to wait until January 1st before appearing in the Senate . But Octavianus and D. Brutus were insistent the

have been a century earlier, namely a stable and balanced state with Senate and People keeping loyally to their separate func

king in harmony, the libertas of the People and the auctoritas of the Senate : either of them could be exploited in politics, a

uetonius, Divus Iulius 73. PageBook=>153 The auctoritas of the Senate was naturally managed in the interests of the par

s of the party in possession. Further, the discretionary power of the Senate , in its tendering of advice to magistrates, was w

ts that an alliance between the wealthiest members of the two orders, Senate and knights, should withstand the People, maintai

then a few ambitious individuals exploited the respectable names of Senate and People as a mask for personal domination. The

. Lepidus’ army compelled him, so he explained in his despatch to the Senate , to plead for the lives and safety of a great mul

taly on his own initiative, privato consilio, it was claimed that the Senate could at once legalize treason, condoning the pri

stitution8 but they might be necessary to save the State. Of that the Senate was supreme judge. What if it had not lent its sa

at if it had not lent its sanction? Why, true patriots were their own Senate . 9 It is evident that res publica constituta or

hould appear misguided in the use of its prerogative of libertas, the Senate unreliable, unpatriotic or unrepresentative? Ther

had the veterans, the plebs and the name of Caesar: his allies in the Senate would provide the rest. NotesPage=>161 (no

ook=>163 invoking on the side of insurgents the authority of the Senate and the liberty of the People. Cicero spoke befor

rigand, a Spartacus. He must be crushed and would be crushed, as once Senate , People and Cicero had dealt with Catilina. In

es of Octavianus and D. Brutus. This meant usurpation of power by the Senate or rather, by a faction in the Senate and war aga

eant usurpation of power by the Senate or rather, by a faction in the Senate and war against the proconsul Antonius. That pros

resources might be enlisted for the struggle? The authority of the Senate was now to be played against the People and the a

esent composed, with its preponderance of Caesarians or neutrals, the Senate was prone to inertia, a treacherous instrument if

mmonwealth. Two political groups were conspicuously absent from the Senate that fought against Antonius. The assassins of Ca

faction were with the young Pompeius in Spain. The weakness of the Senate was flagrantly revealed in the persons of its lea

of note in word or deed, for good or evil, in the last effort of the Senate . Only three, so Cicero, writing to Cassius, asser

ls, a clever politician and an orator of some spirit. 1 So much for Senate and senior statesmen. Without armed aid from the

w for the Republicans. Antonius secured him a vote of thanks from the Senate . The enemies of Antonius soon entered the competi

ntinue to hold their provinces until relieved by the authority of the Senate . This covered Brutus in the Cisalpina. As for Oct

ians and widely admitted by their adversaries that in emergencies the Senate enjoyed special discretionary powers. The Senate

standing. On no known practice or theory could the auctoritas of the Senate NotesPage=>167 1 Phil. 5. Something at lea

that alone, decided the choice of magistrates and hence entry to the Senate was a fundamental principle, whether democratic o

Antonius’ command was not a normal consular province, decreed by the Senate and hence subject to Caesar’s ordinance. Second

an accommodation. Seven years before a small minority dominant in the Senate broke off negotiations with a contumacious procon

ate of peace. But this was different a just and holy war. Thus to the Senate : to Octavianus and to D. Brutus, letters of exhor

tern provinces brought news of sudden and splendid success. While the Senate negotiated with Antonius, Brutus and Cassius had

the first days of February:1 from Brutus, an official dispatch to the Senate , which probably arrived in the second week of the

111. PageBook=>172 On receipt of the dispatch from Brutus the Senate was summoned. Quelling the objections of the Anto

enterprises of Brutus and Cassius. A thrill of horror ran through the Senate . The Republicans exploited their advantage with a

u will be wiser not to make meddling proposals for peace: neither the Senate nor the People approves of them nor does any patr

soldiers slain’, wrote Pollio from Spain. 3 Cicero had boasted in the Senate that the Caesarian veterans were on the wane, no

of Antonius. So at least he inferred from the measures passed in the Senate when the tidings of Mutina were known. In the vic

vation was opposed and perhaps rejected by certain Republicans in the Senate (Ad M. Brutum 1, 15, 9). However that may be, the

he Autobiography of Augustus, in self-justification, incriminated the Senate for slights put upon him, exaggerating greatly, c

ious dead. 1 Their comrades expected more solid recompense. But the Senate reduced the bounties so generously promised to th

nus the menace from the East loomed heavily. The Republicans in the Senate showed their hand. The position of M. Brutus had

d from barring the road to Narbonensis. 1 In March, Lepidus urged the Senate to accept his mediation; and Antonius publicly as

rong that the loyal dispatches which Lepidus continued to send to the Senate should have deceived nobody. The two armies lay

honest man, fell upon his sword. Lepidus now penned a dispatch to the Senate , explaining, in the elevated phrases now universa

rom Hispania Ulterior. Earlier in the year he had complained that the Senate sent him no instructions; nor could he have march

e revenues of the eastern provinces. As Cicero wrote late in May, the Senate was a weapon that had broken to pieces in his han

some such manoeuvre. 4 He remained in Macedonia, though a vote of the Senate had summoned him to Italy after the Battle of Mut

igues were revealed in June. In July a strange embassy confronted the Senate , some four hundred centurions and soldiers, beari

and superfluous anecdote about a centurion’s dramatic gesture in the Senate ). 8 Dio 46, 44, 2. PageBook=>172 due to

e Janiculum and the city was put in a posture of defence. Whether the Senate now declared Octavianus a public enemy is not rec

es deposed the criminal from office, the mob plundered his house; the Senate , by a violent usurpation of authority, condemned

eius, acting in virtue of the maritime command assigned to him by the Senate earlier in the year for the war against Antonius.

s, proconsul of Africa Vetus in 44 B.C., remained there, loyal to the Senate against Antonius and refusing to recognize the Tr

p of Caesar as an age of gold. 4 Thinned by war and proscription, the Senate was now replenished to overflowing with the creat

en escaped slaves could be detected. 6 As with the recruitment of the Senate , all rules and all propriety were now cast off in

em a long time in advance. Of consulars and men of authority in the Senate there was a singular dearth, recalling the days w

hen Cinna was dominant at Rome. In December of the year 44 B.C. the Senate had been able to count only seventeen ex-consuls,

ed their own survival. 4 Few men indeed who already belonged to the Senate before the outbreak of the Civil War achieve the

PPI AND PERUSIA PageBook=>202 ON the first day of the new year Senate and magistrates took a solemn oath to maintain th

eed. 2 Rumour spoke freely of his death. The rejoicing was premature: Senate and People steeled themselves to celebrate instea

e, easily routing Lepidus. He was welcomed by the populace and by the Senate with a sincere fervour such as can have attended

eachery of Salvidienus; who was arraigned for high treason before the Senate and condemned to death. 6 This was the end of Q.

nvited young men of talent or desperate ambition. As admission to the Senate and other forms of patronage rested in the hands

way disposed to share their new privileges or welcome intruders. In a Senate of a thousand members a preponderance of Caesaria

ve to pass before the Fasti of the consuls and the front ranks of the Senate regained even the semblance of their traditional

Balbus, that was beyond words. The lower ranks of the revolutionary Senate were in harmony with the higher, not disdaining f

ed and declined under the peace of the Triumvirs, with no use left in Senate or Forum, but only of service to overcome the rec

ulent tribune in the third consulate of Pompeius. Expelled from the Senate by the censors of 50 B.C., he returned with Caesa

s of political development and did more than justice to the merits of Senate and People in earlier days. 2 There was no ideali

proscriptions, there was still to be found in the higher ranks of the Senate a number of men who had come to maturity in years

e when the ruling class in the cities of Asia might hope to enter the Senate of Rome, take rank with their peers from Italy an

an solid and useful. Many of these men had never yet sat in the Roman Senate . That mattered little now, it is true. They Not

ianus moved first. Early in the year he delivered a speech before the Senate , criticizing the acts of Antonius in the East. 1

ntents of this missive might be guessed: it was to be imparted to the Senate on the first day of the new year. So far offici

onstitution and dispensed with it. When the time came, he went beyond Senate and People, appealing to a higher sanction, so fa

ned. Octavianus retired from the city. The new consuls summoned the Senate and took office on January 1st. They did not read

opatra and her children, a vulnerable point for hostile attack if the Senate decided to discuss the acta of Antonius one by on

armed bands. Returning to Rome, on his own initiative he summoned the Senate . He had discarded the name of Triumvir. But he po

e a voice against the Caesarian leader. Octavianus then dismissed the Senate , instructing it to assemble again on a fixed day,

side in the War of Actium (Res Gestae 25): the total strength of the Senate was over a thousand. PageBook=>279 Octavia

expedient, the retirement of his enemies not unwelcome. Even now, the Senate and People were not utterly to be despised: the c

ifficult position. The secession of avowed enemies by no means left a Senate unreservedly and reliably loyal it was packed wit

consuls met him in the spring, bringing with them the semblance of a Senate . Bitter debate ensued among the party leaders, sh

extorted the document from the Vestal Virgins and read it out to the Senate of Rome. Among other things, Antonius reiterated

rue Roman People not the corrupt plebs or the packed and disreputable Senate of the city, but all Italy. The phrase was fami

ers to an imperator. It resembled also the solemn pledge given by the Senate to Caesar the Dictator in the last month of his l

ng not beyond the reach of valid conjecture. 3 Of the Roman State, of Senate and People, no word. The oath of allegiance bound

en from Spain and Gallia Narbonensis had already been admitted to the Senate by Caesar the Dictator; and there was an imposing

καì τò κράτɩστʋν ‘Pωμαίων ὁμʋγνωμʋνʋῦν ἔχʋɩ. PageBook=>293 the Senate and a large number of Roman knights: they followe

ology of the Principate. On the one side stood Caesar’s heir with the Senate and People of Rome, the star of the Julian house

ed, it became the spoil and prerogative of the victors. Already the Senate had voted that the Temple of Janus should be clos

in virtue of powers specially granted and took in hand a purge of the Senate . 4 ‘Unworthy’ members were expelled or persuaded

nsferred the Commonwealth from his own power to the discretion of the Senate and the People. By what right had it been in his

n accord to adopt—or at least publish— some tolerable compromise with Senate and People, certain eminent personages might have

amicitia. After a prosecution for high treason in the law courts the Senate passed a decree against the offender. Gallus took

s fall with that of Salvidienus. Octavianus praised the pietas of the Senate and deplored the death of a friend. 2 Gallus ma

rficial transformation. The process was completed in a session of the Senate on January 13th, 27 B.C., when he solemnly announ

he resigned all powers and all provinces to the free disposal of the Senate and People of Rome. Acclamation was drowned in pr

were to govern the provinces, as before, but responsible only to the Senate ; and Senate, People and magistrates were to resum

ern the provinces, as before, but responsible only to the Senate; and Senate , People and magistrates were to resume the rightf

the rightful exercise of all their functions. Three days later the Senate again met, eager and impatient to render thanks,

s dwelling, for he had saved the lives of Roman citizens; that in the Senate should be hung a golden shield with his virtues i

and assumes that it carried imperium maius over the provinces of the Senate . Which is by no means necessary, cf. W. Kolbe, in

τινὸς δєομένων From this Premerstein deduces a definite grant by the Senate of a general ‘cura rei publicae’ (o. c, 120 ff.).

they were about. In name, in semblance and in theory the sovranty of Senate and People had been restored. It remains to disco

mvirate. By consent, for merit achieved and for service expected, the Senate invested the first citizen with rank and authorit

anachronistic and misleading. He states that Augustus resigned to the Senate the peaceful provinces (53, 12, 2, cf. 13, 1): ye

modest, little more than coercion of tribunes and more power for the Senate and for censors: not irrelevant to Cicero’s own p

different from Dictatorship, Cicero would be honoured by Princeps and Senate for his eloquence, consulted for his advice on we

ged, not by law but by custom of the Roman constitution, to the whole Senate as a body and to the individual senior statesmen

he ingenuous or intimidate the servile. On the contrary, the purified Senate , being in a majority the partisans of Augustus, w

was clear. Augustus in 27 B.C. professed to resign provinces to the Senate ; and proconsuls remained, as before, in charge of

es were ten in number. Now they were only eight, about as many as the Senate could manage with safety. 4 Moreover, the most di

t among them—a fair and fraudulent pretext to lighten the task of the Senate . At first the portion of the Senate seems to bala

retext to lighten the task of the Senate. At first the portion of the Senate seems to balance the provincia of the Princeps -

AND STATE PageBook=>331 THE pretext of a special mandate from Senate and People was not merely a recognition of the pa

ommonwealth should stand and endure, even when its sovran organs, the Senate and People, were impotent or dumb, even if the Pr

p of Crassus and the prosecution of the Prefect of Egypt. In Rome the Senate and People might enjoy the blessings of order and

east and west, lacking, however, authority over the provinces of the Senate . 1 That was to come later and later too the jealo

homsoever he pleased, but not his imperium, for that was the grant of Senate and People, nor the leadership of his party Agrip

with that supreme distinction. 1 Caesar the Dictator augmented the Senate by admitting his partisans. Neither the measure n

servers. There was a very precise reason for reducing the roll of the Senate . Over three hundred senators had chosen Antonius

r Antonian admirals at Actium. 1 Nobiles were required to adorn the Senate of a revived Republic there were far too many nov

ce among the grand old men of the New State, honoured by Princeps and Senate , acclaimed in public and hated in secret. A suf

om below to the equestrian order and from the equestrian order to the Senate was to be made incomparably more easy. The justif

as under the Republic, they are attested as senators in the purified Senate of Augustus. 8 Above all, freedmen were employed

neath; and it transmitted the choice flower of its own members to the Senate . The class of knights, indeed, is the cardinal fa

ad all too often been a political nuisance. When at variance with the Senate , they endangered for gain the stability of the Co

or political ambition. 4 In itself, the promotion of knights to the Senate was no novelty, for it is evident that the Senate

n of knights to the Senate was no novelty, for it is evident that the Senate after Sulla contained many members of equestrian

his enemies would have said. Under the new regulations, access to the Senate might appear to have been made more difficult, be

ing them to stand for the office of the quaestorship and so enter the Senate . Not only that the tribunate was also thus used.

n happened that only one son of a municipal family chose to enter the Senate . If it was thus in colonies and municipia that ha

even had he the will, he lacked the power to secure admission to the Senate for numerous Italians. Their chance came with Cae

he peoples vanquished by Pompeius Strabo and by Sulla now entered the Senate and commanded the armies of the Roman People Poll

tus was eager to provide for further recruitment and admission to the Senate of the flower of Italy, good opulent men from the

rant of the latus clavus in youth and passing almost at once into the Senate , others after a military career as knights. C. Ve

Picenum and from Corfinium of the Paeligni. 2 Municipal men in the Senate of Rome in the days of Pompeius were furnished in

characters with fantastic names had never been heard of before in the Senate or even at Rome. They were the first senators of

won distinction as procurator of Augustus: his four sons entered the Senate . 5 Vespasius Pollio, of a highly respectable fami

icial career for Roman knights and by facilitating their entry to the Senate . The concordia ordinum thus achieved was at the s

it represented a coalition of the municipal families, whether in the Senate or not, all alike now looking to Rome as their ca

but secured the election of members of a hereditary nobility. Yet the Senate had once seemed to represent the Roman People, fo

that Caesar and Augustus attached to their party and promoted to the Senate the aristocracy of Italy. Senators represented, n

cracy of Asia and even the kings of the East would enter the imperial Senate , time and circumstance would ordain. 1 Over all

Page=>365 1 Dio makes Maecenas advise Augustus to bring into the Senate of Rome το ς κορυϕαίους ξ ἁπάντων τ ν θν ν (52, 1

ings as integral members of the Empire:1 a century later the imperial Senate of Rome welcomed to its membership the descendant

ne of the most significant might appear to be his augmentation of the Senate by the promotion of adherents obscure or even pro

ertain Pompeius Macer, the son of the procurator of Asia, entered the Senate during the reign of Augustus, soon followed by Cn

of Egypt. 4 The sons of such eminent personages regularly entered the Senate under the new order. 5 Augustus exalted Italy; bu

son was a XXVIvir. No evidence, however, that he actually entered the Senate . 3 ILS 2688 (Sex. Aulienus, from Forum Julii);

evenge. He did not care to exclude any large body of nobiles from the Senate . But the master of patronage could attach to his

hen, in face of opposition and by complicated methods, he reduced the Senate from eight hundred to six hundred members. He pro

l and desirable. 1 That would have been harsh and narrow; even with a Senate of six hundred, there supervened again and again

ly consolidated, went on steadily encroaching upon the departments of Senate and People, law and magistrates. Electoral disord

triciate had been reduced again in the wars, being represented in the Senate at the time of Actium by not many more than twent

of a proconsul or the disposal of a province could be resigned by the Senate to the Princeps. 1 If appointed by lot at all, ce

ian officer. 2 After equestrian service himself, Velleius entered the Senate . 3 The influence of M. Vinicius of Cales may here

itable sentiments into the equestris militia, thence perhaps into the Senate . It might be conjectured that the patriotic clubs

Agrippina the younger. 5 A kinsman of the poet Propertius entered the Senate . This man had married well his wife was Aelia Gal

mean that the direction of the government now rested in the hands of Senate and magistrates not for that, but for another pur

rrelsome and ambitious, seldom useful to the Roman People. Within the Senate or without it, a rich fund of ability and experie

, to cover (like that of Augustus since 23 B.C.) the provinces of the Senate . More than that, he received a share in the tribu

PageBook=>394 The partition of provinces between Princeps and Senate in 27 B.C. was likewise neither final nor systema

wise neither final nor systematic. Augustus might be requested by the Senate either to nominate a proconsul in an emergency or

ent of the Princeps, conducted wars under their own auspices. But the Senate lost the other two armies. In 12 B.C. Augustus to

were Galatia, Raetia, Noricum and Judaea. PageBook=>395 To the Senate he had restored no military territories, but only

nd of Cyprus. 1 This looked well and mattered little. In 27 B.C., the Senate provided proconsuls for eight provinces; in A.D.

ich Baetica was severed from Hispania Ulterior and transferred to the Senate has not been recorded. Hardly perhaps as late as

urions passing into the militia equestris and knights promoted to the Senate , like Velleius Paterculus, often had a useful rec

hem certain unpopular functions like that renewed purification of the Senate which he desired and which he was himself compell

everywhere while substance changes. Like the individual senator, the Senate as a body preserves dignitas but loses power as t

he governors of provinces. 4 Yet not entirely at the expense of the Senate . That body even regains for a time the prerogativ

once again, behind the nominal authority and government of the Roman Senate the real and ultimate power needs to be discovere

of constitutional liberty, with free elections and free debate in the Senate , it is evident that there would have to be expert

rnment already existed in the brief Dictatorship of Caesar. While the Senate held empty debate or none at all, and prominent d

iences that might arise from that alarming novelty. He instructed the Senate to appoint a committee to consult with him and pr

far enhanced as to encroach seriously upon the functions of the full Senate . 2 But this was not a permanent change; and the c

4 Dio 53, 21, 5. PageBook=>409 The rotatory committee of the Senate and the various judicial consilia were open, publ

or a long time. 8 Senators might preside over the treasury, but the Senate had no control of financial policy, no exact know

. A standing committee enabled the Princeps to keep in touch with the Senate but who decided the business to be brought before

n might be suitably invoked to express or to guide the opinion of the Senate , in show spontaneous and independent. Plancus pro

enate, in show spontaneous and independent. Plancus proposed that the Senate should confer the name of Augustus upon Caesar’s

was Messalla who twenty-five years later introduced the decree of the Senate naming Augustus the Father of his Country. 3 Re

king in tact and skill. Whatever nominal and legal prerogatives the Senate and People still retained in foreign policy matte

t necessary. Embassies from foreign powers might be introduced to the Senate after a suitable rehearsal. The assembly of the P

ephew Caligula, when Rome lacked a government for two days and in the Senate men debated about a restoration of the Republic,

duct by Augustus and summarily banished to an island. He provided the Senate with a document and full particulars of her misbe

laus of Cappadocia, whose cause Tiberius had once defended before the Senate , was emboldened to studious neglect of the head o

funeral on the instance of Tiberius, who took occasion to remind the Senate of Quirinius’ merits, with pointed contrast and v

last surviving son of Agrippa and Julia. Of the true sentiments of Senate and People when the Claudian returned to power, n

t merely the designation of his successor. At Rome, magistrates and Senate , soldiers and populace at once took a personal oa

him enjoy it in security and goodwill. In the critical session of the Senate certain of the leading men of the State, such as

ion of Augustus’ disposal of the Roman State. Nothing was said in the Senate of the summary execution of Agrippa Postumus. It

edire Virtus audet. 2 It had not been easy. Opposition arose in the Senate , and public demonstrations. A cuirass, conceale

ood a valid precedent: Augustus inexorably read out to a recalcitrant Senate the whole of the speech which a Metellus had once

dignity for the State and new resources of patronage. In 28 B.C. the Senate entrusted Augustus with the task of repairing all

hts of the towns of Italy, it found itself rewarded with power in the Senate and in the councils of the Princeps. The Roman ar

his views of Roman morality, was forced to express his doubts to the Senate . 1 That a change later came over the Roman aristo

s was a king, the favourite of plebs and army, less acceptable to the Senate . If the later books of Livy with their record o

word for ‘Republican’. 3 Macrobius 1, 11, 22. Patavium was for the Senate in 43 B.C., cf. Phil. 12, 10. PageBook=>465

inces, with the Empire pacified and new conquests about to begin, the Senate voted that an altar of Pax Augusta should be set

and his friends moving in solemn procession to sacrifice. A grateful Senate and a regenerated people participated. The new ré

nt Forum of Augustus. 3 This was the shrine and the setting where the Senate debated on war and peace, where generals offered

es illustrate the different aspects of his rule he is Princeps to the Senate , Imperator to army and people, King and God to th

s broke out during his absence in the East a salutary reminder to the Senate . It was only from members of that body that serio

ut is rather a subtle compliment. It was Messalla who proposed in the Senate , with moving and patriotic language, that Augustu

attery, Pollio had acquired for himself a privileged position. In the Senate he once launched a savage attack upon the patriot

reserved the traditions of libertas and ferocia. When the roll of the Senate was being revised in 18 B.C., Labeo put forward t

na. 4 Political oratory starved and dwindled in both law courts and Senate ; from the assemblies of the People, the function

nd dynastic houses of Asia, now holding consular rank in the imperial Senate . Still less does he venture to attack the opulent

rospered in their place. When Claudius proposed to admit to the Roman Senate certain chieftains of the peoples of Gallia Comat

the Republic and from Caesar the Dictator even admission to the Roman Senate . To explain the fall of the Roman Republic, his

high treason was a flexible and comprehensive offence. Whether in the Senate or elsewhere, the prosecutor was tempted to alleg

the course of justice, with the procedure of a nominally independent Senate . The nobiles might savour a brief taste of reve

most to overwhelm Italy and the western provinces in the cosmopolitan Senate of the Antonines. 1 PageNotes. 505 1 Compare

Rome, introduced his clients, the tribal dynasts of Comata, into the Senate . This measure, however, was hasty and provocative

e benefits of the system must have become more widely diffused in the Senate . Yet while this process was going on, the Republi

te. Nor was there need for orators any more, for long speeches in the Senate or before the People, when one man had the suprem

formal. It was said that he arrogated to himself all the functions of Senate , magistrates and laws. 7 Truly but more penetrati

us, and, like Divus Julius, he would be enrolled by vote of the Roman Senate among the gods of Rome for his great merits and f

ia Ordinum. Diss. Frankfurt. Leipzig, 1931. SYME, R. ‘Caesar, the Senate and Italy’, BSR Papers XIV (1938), 1 ff. —â

ff.; with Cicero, 140 f.; actions in the autumn, 123 ff.; against the Senate , 162 ff.; his legal position, 162, 168, 170; Muti

373, 393 ff.; control of elections, 325, 370 ff.; relations with the Senate , 313 ff., 370, 406, 408, 410 f.; with senatorial

, 407; prosecuted, 72, 151; great wealth, 77, 381; does not enter the Senate , 80 f.; relations with Octavianus, 114, 131, 133;

ion, in civil wars, 158 ff., 178 f., 217. Freedmen, sons of, in the Senate , 78, 354; wealth, 76, 195, 354; of Caesar, 76, 13

410, 476 f.; loyalty to Augustus, 474 f.; chieftains admitted to the Senate , 501. Gallia Narbonensis, as Caesar’s province,

189, 207, 292; in the provincia of Augustus, 326; surrendered to the Senate , 339, 395; governors, 110, 165, 202; the clientel

derided by Juvenal, 490; in the Roman equestrian service, 506; in the Senate , 365 ff. Hadrian, the Emperor, 415, 502. Hate

lations with financiers, 52 f., 72 f.; confiscations, 76; increase of Senate , 77 ff.; choice of consuls, 94 f.; the unificatio

from politics, 13, 94, 359, 363; control of law courts, 13; entry to Senate , 10, 13, 81, 358 ff.; military service, 70 f., 78

. 14, 437 f.; loyalty to the Principate, 476 f. Provincials, in the Senate , 79 f., 367, 455 f., 501 ff.; in the equestrian s

stius Crispus, C., his origin, 90, 420; tribunate, 66; expulsion from Senate , 66, 248; governs Africa Nova for Caesar, 110 f.;

12, 60, 494. Sempronius Gracchus, Ti., paramour of Julia, 426, 493. Senate , size of, 11, 81, 196, 349, 370; entry to, 11, 16