The
Roman Senate was the governing council
of the Roman Republic (as opposed to the
Roman Empire, which came later). It is
entirely possible this was the first time
that anyone had decided to name the building
“the Senate” after the political
body “The Senate”. At any
rate, both were an outgrowth of the council
of the kings. By the 3rd century BC the
senate was a group of 300 men with a high
degree of political, legislative, and
administrative power at Rome. There were
checks and balances, similar to the checks
and balances that exist in the senates
around the world today.
The members were chosen by the censors
and included theoretically the best citizens;
but as it worked out, the senate consisted
of ex-magistrates, almost entirely members
of a small number of old families from
either the patrician or plebeian classes.
Membership was usually for life.
As Rome expanded senate sent out the armies,
made the treaties, organized the new domains,
and controlled finances. The senatorial
conduct of Roman affairs was fairly successful
until 130 BC. After that the senate's
provincial administration of the huge
empire was increasingly inefficient and
graft-ridden.
Form
here on in the Senate would become a symbol
for both the concepts of “law and
order” and for the concepts of “tyranny
and graft”. While it is true that
under the Senate system Rome was still
a Republic, but it was far from the democracy
we know today. As years passed the powers
of the Senate and the importance of The
Senate waxed and waned, sometimes exacting
real power over emperors and kings, and
at other times being a puppet of a higher
power.
One day there was a fatal development
in this republic of two parties; the optimates
(the senatorial conservatives) and populares,
grew out of this resistance to change.
Caesar enlarged the number of the senate
to 900. The ruin of the optimates and
the senate was accomplished in the proscription
of 43 BC after Caesar's assassination.
Under Byzantine rule in the 6th century,
the senate disappeared.
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