Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

10161 SENATUS. SENATUS.
conjecture the shape, nor is any additional light or the Luceres became incorporated with tile
thrown uponl the question by HI-yginus, who tells Roman state. Dionysius (iii. 67) and Livy (i.
us, when describing the constellations, that Cassio- 35) place this last event in the reign of Ta'rpeia is seated " in siliqucastsro." quinius Priscus; Cicero (de Re Publ. ii. 20), wvho
Of chairs in ordinary use for domestic purposes, agrees with the two historians on this point, states
a great variety, many displaying great taste, have that Tarquinius doubled the number of senators,
been discovered in excavations or are seen repre- according to which we ought to suppose that besented in ancient frescoes. The first cut annexed fore Tarquinins the senate consisted only of 150
represents a bronze one from the Museumn at members. This difference however may be accounted for by the supposition, that at the time of
________________ _______________ Tarquinius Priscus a number of seats in the senate
iad become vacant. which he filled up at the
same time that he added 100 Luceres to tIe senate,
or else that Cicero regarded the Luceres, in opposition to the two other tribes, as a second or a new
half of the nation, and thus incorrectly considered
their senators likewise as the second or new half
of that body. The new senators added by Tart/ Hi?'?iquinius Priscus were distinguished from those belonging to the two older tribes by the appellation
ptres aienorurne entium, as previously those who
represented the Tities had been distinguished, by
the same name, from those who represented the
Naples (MMus. BoIt. vol. vi. tav. 28): the second, Ranmnes. (Dionys. ii. 57.) Servius Tullius did
two chairs, of which the one on the right hand is not make any change in the composition of the
in the Vatican and the other is taken from apaint- senate; but under Tarquinius Superbus their
ing at Pompeii. (llIs. Borl. vol. xii. tav. 3.) A number- is said to have become very much dihliair of a very beautiful form is given in the Ai&s. minished, as this tyrant put many to death and
Borb. vol. viii. tav. 20. sent others into exile. This account however appears to be greatly exaggerated, and it is a probable supposition of Niebuhr ([Iist. of' Rome, i.
p. 526), that several vacancies in tlhe senate arose
firom many of the senators accompannying the tyrant
into his exile. The vacancies which had thus
arisen were filled up immediately after the establishment of the republic, by L. Junius Brutus,
as some writers state (Liv. ii. 1), or, according to' t t > //,lJ \\\ Dionysius (v. 13), by Brutus and Valerius Publicola, and according to Plutarch (Pmubl. 11) and
Festus (s. v. Qui palres) by Valeris Publicola
alone. All however agree that the persons who
were on this occasion made senators were noble
V. SELLAE EQUESTRES. [EPHIPPIUtI.] [W.R.] plebeians of equestrian rank. Dionysius states,
SE1/MATA (auatara). [FNvus, p. 556, a.] that the noblest of the plebeians were first raised
SEMBELLA. [DENRIUS.] - to the rank of patricians, and that then the new
SEMENTIVAE FERIAE. [FERIA, p.530,a.] senators were taken from amnong them. But this
SEMIS, SEMISSIS. [As, p. 140, b.] appears to be incompatible with the name by
SEMU'NCIA. [UNCIA.] which they were designated. IHad they been
SEMUNCIA'RIUM FUNUS. [FENUS, P. made patricians, they would have been patres like
527, b.] the others, whereas now the new senators are said
SENA'TUS. In all the republics of antiquity to have been distinguished from the old ones by
the government was divided between a senate and the name of conscripti. (Liv. ii. 1; Fest. s. v. Cona popular assembly; and in cases where a king scripti and adlecti.) Hence the customary mode of
stood at the head of affairs, as at Sparta, the addressing the whole senate' henceforth always
king had little more than the executive. A se- was: partes 0onscripti, that is, paltes et consclripti.
nate in the early times was always regarded as There is a statement that the number of these new
an assembly of elders, which is in fact the meaning senators was 164 (Plut. Pubt. 11; Fest. s. v. Qui
of the Roman senatus as of the Spartan yepovoula, patres); but this, as Niebuhr has justly remarked,
and its members were elected from among the is a fabrication, perhaps of Valerius of Antium,
nobles of the nation. The number of senators which is contradicted bny all subsequent history.
in the ancient republics always bore a distinct re- Henceforth the number of 300 senators appears
lation to the numlber of tribes of which the nation to have remained unaltered for several centuries.
was composed. [BoULE, GERUSIA.] Hence in (Liv. Epit. 60.) C. Sempronius Gracchus was
the earliest times, when Rome consisted of only the first who attempted to make a change, but in
one tribe, its senate-consisted of one hundred mem- what this consisted is not certain. In the epitome
bers (senatores or patres; compare PATrIICIm), and of Livy it is expressly stated, that he intended to
when the Sabine tribe or the Tities became united add 600 equites to the number of 300 senators,
with the Latin tribe or the Ramnnes, the number which would have made a senate of 900 members,
of senators was increased to two hundred. (Dionys. and would have given a great preponderance to the
ii. 47; Plut. Rom. 20.) This number was again equites. This appears to be an absurdity. (G/bttling,
augmented by one hundred, when the third tribe Cescl. l., Rimm. S/naotsv. p 437.) Plutarch (0,