FREE ESSAY ON THE FUNCTIONS AND HISTORY OF THE ROMAN SENATE

THE FUNCTIONS AND HISTORY OF THE ROMAN SENATE

The Functions and History of the Roman Senate
In today's modern world representative government is the norm. Nearly all governments are
ruled by their citizens via a republic or some other type of governing body. However, in
the ancient world, this standard of democratic government had not yet taken hold;
political control still belonged to the few elite, rich, and powerful persons and
influential families. Thus, we have a contrast between governments of the ancient world
and our modern day governments. In other words, the past generally denotes monarchy,
empire, or absolute control. While modern government usually implies republic, voting, or
democratic control. 
However, an analysis of Roman government reveals that it does not exactly fit purely into
either mold of government. It was a mixture of many elements, democratic, monarchial, and
aristocratic. The purpose of this report will be to provide a general overview of the
structure, power, and function of one component of the Roman government- that is, the
Roman Senate. Also, this paper will serve to provide a historical context for the Senate,
including both the origins and demise of this governmental body and will discuss the
issues of class conflict as it related to the Senate's power and jurisdiction.
There were three main components of the Roman Republic. The first of which represents the
monarchial element surviving from when Rome had a king (this will be discussed in greater
length and detail below). Two magistrates or consuls had ultimate civil and military
authority. The two consuls held their office for one year (they were elected by Roman
citizens) and then after their term had expired, entered the Senate for life. Each consul
could veto the actions of the other, thus serving as a check for one individual gaining
too much political power and therefore prevented (at least temporarily) the Republic from
being undermined by a potential dictator. Their primary duties included leading the army,
serving as judges, and having ceremonial religious duties. 
The next governmental institution, which represented the democratic element of the Roman
Republic, are the Assemblies. These Assemblies were theoretically made up of all adult
male Romans (the only exception is that they had to be present at the meetings). Their
primary functions were the annual elections of consuls, approving or rejecting laws, and
deciding issues of war and peace. One great flaw of this body was that the wealthier
citizens voted first and thereby had a great influence on how the rest of the Assembly
voted.
Finally, we come to the focus of this report, that is, the Roman Senate. The Senate
represented the aristocratic and elitist element of Roman government and was a collection
of patrician citizens (the patrician/plebian conflict will be described in more depth
later) who served as the legislative branch of the government as well as an advisory
body. In the beginning of the Republic, the Senate contained 300 members, the members
themselves were chosen from the patrician class, ex-consuls, and other officers who
served for life. By the time that Julius Caesar gained power, the Senate's membership had
increased to nearly 800 people. 
Despite having a mostly advisory role, by the 3rd Century BC the Senate had been able to
increase its influence and power. Some of the powers that it gained were that it prepared
legislation to be put before the Assembly, it administered finances, dealt for foreign
affairs, and supervised the official state religions. However, despite its increase in
power, the Senate did not have the power to make laws, by only issue decrees known as
Decreta or Senatus Consulta, which basically served as official recommendations and while
they carried some weight, they still had no actual binding and legal authority. 
Another interesting aspect of the Roman Senate was that Senators received no pay for
their services as government officials. During the republic, the most important activity
for the small group of patrician families that controlled the Senate was the pursuit of
political power for themselves, their family, and friends. A senator was expected to
greet everyone warmly and by name, and was actually assisted by a slave called a
nomenclator whose duty it was to memorize names and help identify people.
Meetings of the Senate were attended by the Senators themselves and magistrates (the
consul for example) only. However, the public could gather by the open doors of the
Senate. The meetings took place in the Curia Hostilia in the northwest corner of the
Forum, but they could take place at any public place within the city limits of Rome.
Senators sat on benches known as subselli, which ran down the long sides of the building,
in no fixed order. The Senate met daily, and Senators were allowed to address the Senate
on matters pertaining to state or foreign affairs. In fact, a main activity of the Senate
was the debate of issues and many of the early senators were great orators and we have
their words preserved for us today by contemporary historians. Cato the Censor, Cicero,
and others sometimes swayed the opinion of the entire population of Rome with their fine
rhetoric and persuasive arguments.
The history of the Roman Senate goes back to before there was an accurate written history
for Rome. The Senate was composed of leading citizens who were members of the original
aristocratic families in the old Monarchy. The original purpose of this group was to
advise the King. This worked well during the first two centuries of Rome's existence when
Rome was little more than a city-state built on seven hills and ruled by a king. The
Senate originally had one hundred members chosen from amongst the Patrician class but the
early kings soon increased its size to three hundred members. After the expulsion of the
last king, Tarquinius Superbus, in 509 BC the Senate formed the main governing body of
the Roman Republic. The two consuls, who took the place of the old monarchy, used the
Senate as their official advisors and aristocratic (Plebian) supporters. This is the
beginning of the Republic, and hence, Senatorial power and domination of the Roman
Government
The next series of events that proved to be historically important regarding the Roman
Senate occurred during 133 and 27 BC. During this time, the Republic was engaged in a
constant series of civil wars, making up what many refer to as the Roman Revolution. Part
of the reason for this was because during the Punic and Macedonian wars of the 3rd and
2nd centuries BC Rome had annexed Spain, Macedonia, Greece, the East, and North Africa.
Thus Rome had come to control a vast empire and the Republic with its two consuls,
Senate, and small group of magistrates was not an adequate government for an empire of
the size. In other words the Roman Republic was a form of government that worked well
with a city-state or even a group of powerful city-states in control of a region, not a
good government for maintaining a large empire (for this and because of this the empire
would eventually rise)
By 133 BC Roman politics had become extremely divided around two different factions in
the Senate. The first group was the supporters of the aristocracy, the patricians, who
supported the wealthy senatorial class. The other group trying to get political power was
interested in the interest of the plebeians and known as the Populares. The Populares
demanded the redistribution of land to peasants as well as a reform of the voting
procedure. 
The struggle between these two factions resulted in civil war when the Senate ordered the
assassination of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC. Gracchus had been elected as a high ranking
magistrate and had proposed a law that would divide the land and give it to the plebian
citizens of Rome. The Senate, looking out for the interests of the patricians, stopped
such a law from being passed and killed Gracchus and 300 of his followers. Following this
incident, Gaius Gracchus, Tiberius' brother took up the cause that his brother had fought
for. He demanded that the Senate's power should be lessened, the military pay rates
should be increased, and give free grain to the citizens of Rome. The Senate would not
even consider such action so they declared martial law. Because of this, riots broke out
and 3000 Populares, along with Gaius, were killed. From this point on, the corruption of
the Senate was obvious and the respect of the Senate by the citizens severely declined.
This was the first blow to the Senate that would eventually bring about the end of the
Republic.
The early years of the 1st BC the long period of civil war that began with the struggle
mentioned above reached a climax with Octavian's defeat of Marcus Antonius at the Battle
of Actium in 31 B. C. During that period, the Senate steadily lost power to the
imperators, or generals of large Roman armies who controlled the government. In 27 B. C.,
the Senate voluntarily gave much of its power to Octavian, whom they had given the title
of Augustus Caesar. While most of the early emperors tried to involve the Senate in the
governing process and actively sought its counsel, most of the Senate's real power was
gone by the reign of Tiberius. Thus, the Battle of Actium marketed the end of the Roman
Republic and consequently, the end of the Roman Senate's power.
Rome is said to have had at one point during its history a republic, this is true, but it
was definitely a limited one. For example, in theory, all citizens of Rome could vote for
the Senators and serve in the Assembly. However, all citizens does not imply all people.
Far from this democratic-sounding system, the only people considered to be full citizens
were everyone in Rome with the exception of women, slaves, foreigners, those living in
the provinces, and the plebeians. Obviously, this was an incredible portion of the
population that was not technically citizens, and thus, a huge segment of the population
deprived of political rights or representation.
Despite the inherent un-democratic system present in Republican Rome, one cannot say that
its contributions to our modern ideas of democracy were insignificant. Quite to the
contrary, examples of the Roman Senate's influence can be found right here in our own
government. For example the upper house in our legislative branch is called the 'senate',
our republic was also established by a constitution (as was the Roman's), the president
(our modern 'consuls') is also advised by and is subject to our own senate, and America's
founding fathers drew extensively on Roman theories and models of government when
deciding how to establish our present system. The ancient Roman Senate's connection to
the modern world is obvious, and its modern day significance is as well. The influence of
the Roman Senate is just one example of how the ancient Roman's society has affected
nearly all spheres of modern life.