Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/47

Rh II. The Senate and the Patriciate.

Membership of the Senate. — The Valerian law in regard to appeal was a great concession to the plebeians. Another concession affected the membership of the senate. One hundred and sixty-four plebeians are said to have been appointed senators. Some were probably admitted, but scarcely one hundred and sixty-four, or a majority. The new members were added to the old senatorial roll (hence patres [et] conscripti). The normal number of senators remained the same as before, that is, three hundred.

Perhaps it early became a custom to revise and complete the list of senators in connection with the census, usually every fourth year. The consul was not ex officio a senator, nor did he vote, but it soon became a rule to admit ex-consuls to the senate, if they did not already belong to it. They and the consuls elect were naturally entered on the roll first, and were called upon to express their opinion before the others; and the position of first senator (princeps senatus) was keenly coveted, because it was very influential.

The Patrician Senators. — The patrician senators did not permit the plebeians to become full members; they always reserved for themselves the prerogatives which the senate exercised as an independent constitutional organ — the right of governing the state during an interregnum and of confirming or rejecting the laws and elections carried in the popular assemblies. This right of sanction (patrum auctoritas) was of greater importance now than of old, on account of the larger number of laws and elections. The popular decrees in regard to cases of appeal do not seem to have needed senatorial sanction.

Influence of the Senate. — Notwithstanding these patrician reservations of power, the admission of the plebeians proved