Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/215

Rh importance in the public administration, as the temporary tax had not been collected since 167, and the military levy was being superseded by voluntary enlistment. He was probably still less inclined to reorganize the popular assemblies and seems to have left their organization as he found it. Besides, he did not directly interfere with their legislative, or to any large extent with their electoral, powers; but he practically deprived them of their judicial functions. While he allowed them to remain formally sovereign, he intended to have them play an insignificant part in his constitutional scheme, and for the time being he held them in check by his servile bodyguard.

Membership of the Senate. — Sulla desired that the senate should be practically the supreme organ in his system of government For this purpose he had to supplement its ranks, now thinned by war and executions, and to insure its independence. Perhaps with the coöperation of the several districts, he chose about three hundred new senators from the equestrian class. He no doubt selected as many as possible from the old senatorial houses that were loyal to him; but others were upstarts, whom military service, wealth, or favoritism elevated to distinction.

Admission of Senators. — By a special law he also provided for a regular admission of new senators in the future. By 122 at least, the plebeian ex-aediles, and by 102 the ex-tribunes, as well as the former consuls, praetors, and curule aediles, had obtained a legal claim to a seat and vote in the senate. It was now enacted that every ex-quaestor should enjoy the same privilege and practically become a senator by virtue of having filled the quaestorship; and, to maintain the number of senators at about six hundred, the number of quaestors was raised to twenty. In this way the senators became practically independent of censorial appointment.