Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/48

34 to be a great gain to the plebeian class, because the senate assumed a different and far more influential position during the republican period. While the king had occupied a position above patrician and plebeian, the consul simply commanded to-day those he obeyed last year and those he would obey in the future. He belonged to a class — the patriciate — to which his ancestors had belonged, and to which he reflected with pride that his descendants would belong. It was almost inevitable that he should consult the wishes and interests of this class as represented in the senate. He was a single individual; the senators were the three hundred picked men of Rome. His ascendency was transient; their position was permanent. Just as in our time Queen Victoria wielded very great influence, largely because she remained in authority while premiers changed; so the Roman senate, which remained essentially the same for generations, necessarily exercised a vast influence on the consuls, with their collegiate tenure, annual term, and other limitations.

Senatorial Means of Control. — If a consul endeavored to be independent, the senate was usually able to baffle his efforts by means of his colleague or through the aristocratic colleges of pontiffs and augurs. The latter could always detect some error or omission in his auspices, for example, and thereby practically annul his official acts. In legislation the patrician senators could defeat him by their right to reject (patrum auctoritas). As a last resort the senate might decree that a dictator ought to be appointed. Inasmuch as it became an invariable custom that the consuls should obey such a decree, the senate had in practice the power to suspend them at pleasure.

As a result of its powers and influence, the senate was consulted in regard to legislative measures, treaties, public lands, finances, and in general all acts whose effect was to