senateRegal and republican Age CompositionIn 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).ProcedureThe 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).FunctionsThe 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. Bonnefond-Coudry, 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 recruitmentBy 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 rolesAlthough 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 empireThe 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.