Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/105

Rh ordinarily be put down without difficulty. Nevertheless, the tribunate remained in law an exceedingly powerful magistracy and a means of progress or revolution.

General Influence of the Senate. — The senate had surrendered its right to approve or reject tribunician bills, and formally it had acquired no new constitutional powers; but it exercised a decisive influence on elections, legislation, and administration. In general its advice was law. Its former dependence on the magistrates was changed into domination. This result was due chiefly to the collegiate and annual tenure and the multiplication of the magistracies, but also to the manner of choosing senators and to other circumstances. In consequence of the Ovinian plebiscite those who had held a curule office, and perhaps those who had filled other offices, became senators, not by the arbitrary choice of a magistrate, but virtually because of their election by the people. They formed the main body of the senate, the part of it in whose hands the government was concentrated. The senate was thus to a certain extent a representative body — an approach to the Teutonic invention of representative government.

Its Influence on Legislation. — Every new project of law was first laid before the senate, and scarcely ever did a magistrate venture to submit a bill to the people without the advice and consent of this body. If he attempted to be independent, the senate might direct another magistrate to intercede against him, or, with the aid of the priests, it might annul a law whose passage he secured, or prevent its execution. The senate claimed also in extreme cases the right to dispense, or exempt, particular persons from the operation of a law. The customary proviso that the people should ratify the proceeding was practically of little consequence.