Ancient Rome: An Introductory History by Paul A. Zoch Read Free Book Online

auctoritas ), however, invested it with great influence. For a while the Senate could veto laws made by the popular assemblies (the Comitia Centuriata and Consilium Plebis), but eventually that power lapsed. The Senate also determined Rome's expenditures and revenues, the rate of tribute of allies, and taxes of subject communities. Disputes between Italian communities, different provinces, and client states came before the Senate for arbitration.
Senators were not elected and had no constituents; once in the Senate, they remained senators for life, unless they made enemies of the censors or failed to maintain the requisite property. Depending upon the time period, one became a senator after becoming a praetor; after being recommended by the consul or a dictator; or after becoming a quaestor. Senators were not paid for their services, and most did not need the money. They came from the landed class of Rome and also had to fulfill a substantial property requirement to become senators. Senators by law were barred from engaging in business and owning large ships, so as to avoid any conflicts of interest. If a senator became consul and was awarded a military command, he could make money from the loot gained from the people he had conquered. Once Rome gained its great empire and needed governors of the various provinces, ex-consuls and ex-praetors could make a lot of money as governors.

 

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Meetings of the Senate were chaired by each consul in alternate months. The consul conducting the meeting would announce the agenda and lead the discussion, calling upon senators to give their opinions. During the discussions of business, there was a definite hierarchy among the participants. First, the consuls, princeps senatus ("chief of the Senate," the senior senator), and ex-consuls would be asked to give their opinions; then the praetors would speak; and so on through the ranks. Once called upon to give his opinion, a senator could speak for as long as he wished; Cato the Younger (95-46 B.C. ) frustrated a few meetings of the Senate with filibusters.
Depending upon the time, there were three hundred senators, or six hundred, orfor a time when Julius Caesar was dictatornine hundred (his successor Augustus reduced the number to six hundred). Senators enjoyed reserved seats at religious ceremonies and public entertainments. They wore special shoes and the latus clavus , a wide purple stripe, on their togas.
The Cursus Honorum
The well-born Roman boy who wanted to earn great gloria would start on what the Romans called the cursus honorum , the "course of honors," or the ladder of offices leading to the top, the consulship. He would start out as a quaestor; then usually, but not always, become an aedile. As aedile, he would give fabulous games and parties, to win the gratitudeand the votesof the people for his next office, the praetorship. By law, he would have to wait three years between the praetorship and the consulship. After serving as consul, he might become a censor.
The Assemblies of the People
The Roman people met in a several comitia (assemblies). Although there were three types of comitia ( centuriata, tributa , and curiata ), we will discuss only the most important, the Comitia Centuriata.
The Comitia Centuriata was a timocratic assembly (one in which the richer voted before the poorer) of Roman men of military age.

 

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(See the description of the classes in chapter 4.) It elected the magistrates, approved laws recommended by the Senate, declared war, and heard appeals of citizens condemned for capital crimes. R met on the Field of Mars outside the city, since armies were not allowed past the pomerium into the city.
The Consilium Plebis, or Popular Assembly, was an assembly of the common people that elected the tribunes. Eventually this assembly could pass laws, at first with the approval of the Senate, and later without Senate approval. A law passed by the Popular Assembly was called a plebiscitum (English