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

1 018 SENATUS. SENAT LUS.
kings into those of the magistrates, the consuls, con-! pare Niebuhlr, ii. p. 114; Walter, p. 144, and
snlar tribunes, and subsequently the censors. (Liv. more especially Becker, 1. c. p. 431, &c.; F. Hofii. 1; Fest. s. v. Praeteriti senatores.) But the power mann, Der Rimn Senat, p. 19, &c.) A singular
of electing senators possessed by the republican irregnularity in electing members of the senate was
magistrates was by no means an arbitrary power, committed by Appius Claudius Caecus, who elected
for the senators were always taken from among into the senate sons of freedmen (Liv. ix. 29, 46;
those who were equites, or whom the people had Aur. Vict. de Fi?. Illusts. 34); but this conduct
previously invested with a magistracy, so that in was declared illegal, and had no further consereality the people themselves always nominated quences.
the candidates for the senate. Front the year WVhen atlength all the state offices had become
487 B. c. the princeps senatus was no longer equally accessible to the plebeians and the patriappointed for life, but became a magistrate ap- cians, and when the majority of offices were held
pointed by the curies, and the patres minorum by the former, their number in the senate naturally
gentium were likewise eligible to this dignity. increased in proportion. The senate had gradually
(Niebuhr, ii. p. 119.) It moreover appears, that become an assembly representing the people, as
all the curule magistrates from the quaestors up- formerly it had represented the populus, and down
wards had by virtue of their office a seat in the to the last century of the republic the senatorial
senate, which they retained after the year of their dignity was only regarded as one conferred by the
office was over, and it was from these ex-magis- people. (Cic. pro Sext. 65, de Leg. iii. 12, c. Verr.
trates that the vacancies occurring in the senate iv. 11, pro Cluend. 56.) But notwithstanding
were generally filled up. this apparently popular character of the senate, it
After the institution of the censorship, the cen- was never a popular or democratic assembly, f-or
sors alone had the right to elect new members into now its members belonged to the nobiles, who
the senate from among the ex-magistrates, and to were as aristocratic as the patricians. [Noexclud3 such as they deemed unworthy. (Zonar. BILES.] The office of princeps senatus, which
vii. 19; compare Cic. de Leg. iii. 12.) [CEN- had become independent of that of praetor urbanus.,
soR.] The exclusion was effected by simply was now given by the censors, and at first always
passing over the names and not entering them to the eldest among the ex-censors (Liv. xxvii. 11),
into the lists of senators, whence such men were but afterwards to any other senator whom they
called praeteriti senatores. (Fest. s. v.) On one thought most worthy, and unless there was any
extraordinary occasion the eldest among the ex- charge to be made against him, he was reelected
censors was invested with dictatorial power to at the next lustrum. This distinction, however,
elect new members into the senate. (Liv. xxiii. great as it was, afforded neither power nor advan22.) The censors were thus, on the one hand, tages (Zonar. vii. 19), and did not even confer the
confined in their elections to such persons as had privilege of presiding at the meetings of the senate,
already received the confidence of the people, and which only belonged to those magistrates who had
on the other, they were expressly directed by the the right to convoke the senate. (Gell. xiv. 7; Cic.
lex Ovinia tribunicia to elect " ex omni ordine op- de Leg. iii. 4.)
timum quemque curiatim." (Fest. 1. c.) This ob- It has been supposed by Niebuhr (iii. p. 406),
scure lex Ovinia is referred by Niebuhr (i. p. 527) that a senatorial census existed at Rome at the
to the time anterior to the admission of the con- commencement of the second Pusnic war, but the
scripti into the senate, but it evidently belongs to words of Livy (xxiv. 11) on which this supposition
a much later period, and was meant to be a guid- is founded seem to be too vague to admit of such an
ance to the censors, as he himself afterwards ac- inference. GBttling (p. 346) infers from Cicero (tad
knowledged (ii. p. 408, n. 855; compare Walter, Fasz. xiii. 5), that Caesar was the first who inst.p. 100, n. 68). The ordo mentioned in this lex is tuted a senatorial census, but the passage of Cicero
the ordo senatorius, i. e. men who were eligible for is still more inconclusive than that of Livy, and
the senate from the office they had held. (Liv. we may safely take it for granted that during the
xxii. 49.) The expression curiatimn is very difficult whole of the republican period no such census
to explain; some believe that it refers to the fact existed (Plin. tI. N. xiv. 1), although senators
that the new senators were only appointed with the naturally always belonged to the wealthiest classes.
sanction of the senate itself (Dionys. vii. 55; Cic. The institution of a census for senators belongs
Plzilip. v. 17), and in the presence of the lictors, altogether to the time of the empire. Augustus
who represented the curies. first fixed it at 400,000 sesterces, afterwards inFrom the time that the curule magistrates had creased it to double this sum, and at last even to
the right to take their seats in the senate, we must 1,200,000 sesterces. Those senators whose prodistinguish between two classes of senators, viz., perty did not amount to this sum, received grants
real senators, or such as had been regularly raised from the emperor to make it up. (Suet. Aug. 41;
to their dignity by the magistrates or the censors, Dion Cass. liv. 17, 26, 30, Iv. 13.) Subsequently
and such as had, by virtue of the office which they it seems to have become customary to remove from
held or had held, a right to take their seats in the the senate those who had lost their property
senate and to speak (sententiani dicere,jus sententiae), through their own prodigality and vices, if they
but not tovote. (Gellius, iii. 18; Fest. s.v. Senatores.) did not quit it of their own accord. (Tacit. Alnal.
To this ordo senatorius also belonged the ponti- ii. 48, xii. 52; Suet. Tib. 47.) Augustus also,
fex maximus and the flamen dialis. The whole after having cleared the senate of unworthy memof these senators had, as we have stated, no right bers, introduced a new and reanimating element
to vote, but when the others had voted, they might into it by admitting men from the municipia, the
step over or join the one or the other party, whence colonies, and even from the provinces. (1Tacit.
they were called seznatores pedarii, an appellation Annal. iii. 55, xi. 25; Suet. Vesp. 9.) When
which had in former times been applied to those an inhabitant of a province was honoured in this
juniores who were not consulars, (Gell. I. c.; com- manner, the province was said to receive thejus