The Historians' History of the World 05 [The Roman Republic]

The manner in which seats in the senate were obtained is tolerably well ascertained. The members of this august body, all—or nearly all—owed their places to the votes of the people. In theory, indeed, the censors still possessed the power really exercised by the kings and early consuls, of choosing the senators at their own will and pleasure. But official powers, however arbitrary, are always limited in practice. The censors followed rules established by ancient precedent, and chose the senate from those who had held the quæstorship and higher magistracies. In the interval between two censorships, that is in the course of five years, the number of exquæstors alone must have amounted to at least forty, and this was more than sufficient to fill the number of vacancies which would have occurred in ordinary times. The first qualification then for a seat in the senate was that of office. It is probable that to the qualification of office there was added a second, of property. Such was certainly the case in later times. A third limitation, that of age, followed from the rule that the senate was recruited from the lists of official persons. No one could be a senator till he was about thirty.

Such was the composition of this great council during the best times of the republic. It formed a true aristocracy. Its members, almost all, possessed the knowledge derived from the discharge of public office and from mature age. They were recommended to their places by popular election, and yet secured from subserviency to popular will by the amount of their property. It was not by a mere figure of speech that the minister of Pyrrhus called the Roman senate “an assembly of kings.” Many of its members had exercised what was in effect sovereign power; many were preparing to exercise it. The power of the senate was equal to its dignity.

In regard to legislation, it exercised an absolute control over the centuriate assembly, because no law could be submitted to its votes which had not originated in the senate; and thus the vote of the centuries could not do more than place a veto on a senatorial decree.[67]

In respect to foreign affairs, the power of the senate was absolute, except in declaring war or concluding treaties of peace,—matters which were submitted to the votes of the people. They assigned to the consuls and prætors their respective provinces of administration and command; they fixed the amount of the troops to be levied every year from the list of Roman citizens, and of the contingents to be furnished by the Italian allies. They prolonged the command of a general or superseded him at pleasure. They estimated the sums necessary for the military chest; nor could a sesterce be paid to the general without their order. If a consul proved refractory, they could transfer his power for the time to a dictator; even if his success had been great, they could refuse him the honour of a triumph. Ambassadors to foreign states were chosen by them and from them; all disputes in Italy or beyond seas were referred to their sovereign arbitrament.

In the administration of home affairs the regulation of religious matters was in their hands; they exercised superintendence over the pontiffs and other ministers of public worship. They appointed days for extraordinary festivals, for thanksgiving after victory, for humiliation after defeat. But, which was of highest importance, all the financial arrangements of the state were left to their discretion. The censors, at periods usually not exceeding five years in duration, formed estimates of annual outlay, and provided ways and means for meeting these estimates; but always under the direction of the senators. In all these matters, both of home and foreign administration, their decrees had the power of law. In times of difficulty they had the power of suspending all rules of law, by the appointment of a dictator.

Besides these administrative functions, they might resolve themselves into a high court of justice for the trial of extraordinary offences. But in this matter they obtained far more definite authority by the Calpurnian law, which about fifty years later established high courts of justice, in which prætors acted as presiding judges, and senators were jurymen.

THE CENTURIATE ASSEMBLY

At some time between the decemvirate and the Second Punic War, a complete reform had been made in the centuriate assembly, as organised by Servius. When this was we know not. Nor do we know the precise nature of the reform. This only is certain, that the distribution of the whole people into tribes was taken as the basis of division in the centuriate assembly as well as in the assembly of the tribes, and yet that the division into classes and centuries was retained, as well as into seniores and juniores.

It may be assumed that the whole people was convened according to its division into thirty-five tribes; that in each tribe account was taken of the five classes, arranged according to an ascending scale of property, which, however, had been greatly altered from that attributed to Servius; and that in each tribe each of the five classes was subdivided into two centuries, one of seniores, or men between forty-five and sixty, one of juniores, or men between eighteen and forty-five. On the whole, then, with the addition of eighteen centuries of knights, there would be 368 centuries. This plan, though it allowed far less influence to wealth than the plan of Servius, would yet leave a considerable advantage to the richer classes. For it is plain that the two centuries of the first class in each tribe would contain far fewer members than the two centuries of the second class, those of the second fewer than those of the third, and all those of the first four together, probably, fewer than those of the fifth. Yet these four classes, having in all 280 or (with the knights) 298 centuries, would command an absolute majority; for the question was still decided by the majority of centuries.