The Functions And History Of The Roman Senate Essays -

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 Senates 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