The Roman Senate

The Senate was the highest law-making body of ancient Rome. It was composed of the rich landowners and aristocracy. Membership in this decision-making body was based on inherited privilege, much like the British House of Lords. In reality it was more like a cross between the Canadian and British Senates in that the individual members could (eventually) be appointed, as well as inheriting their titles because they were members of ancient noble families. If families died out, lost their social influence or betrayed the "Roman State" (or the interests of the rich nobility), they could be thrown out.

The nobility, called Patricians, or "fathers", fought with the common people, called Plebians, or Plebs, for political and religious power. The common folk and the nobility were locked in an endless, self-consuming social war. Over time, more democratic methods of decision making and power sharing developed and, eventually, prominent Plebians could rise to the highest offices in the state. They created the National Assembly to govern themselves. It originally had no power to govern members of the Senate, though this later changed. The Senate did manage to maintain a near-monopoly on the all-important religious and ceremonial rights.

The Senate lived on for a while after the fall of the Republic, technically maintaining its old powers, but the Emperor had the support of the military, and the Senate's powers were ultimately doomed. As soon as the Senate bowed to the Emperor Augustus, it was a downhill trend. The Roman Senate became a pathetic rubber-stamp body. When it tried to oppose some of the emperors, the emperors often relied on intimidation and brute force to get their way. In one famous incident, soldiers were ominously marched into the senate; they did nothing, but the terrified Senators backed away from challenging the emperor's dictates. At other times, there were active purges and slaughters of the Senatorial families, and the senate was stacked with nobility reliant on the Emperor for their positions and support.

The Senate was one of the few remaining Republican political institutions that survived into the Empire. By Tacitus' time, the Senate was almost completely dominated by the various emperors. The proud and aristocratic Senators, who had never been champions of the common Roman in any case, bristled under the murderous authority of the Emperor as subjects themselves.

The rich and powerful had contempt for "average" Roman. The elites' greedy attempts to undermine the few freedoms enjoyed by the Republicans resulted in their own ultimate enslavement to a succession of corrupt families and brutal emperors.

Eventually, the Western Empire collapsed, shortly after A.D. 450. The Germanic tribes overran much of what had formerly been ruled by Roman officials. The Franks slowly annexed Gaul, giving France its name, and the Anglii did the same to Britain. The Vandals set up kingdoms in North Africa, and were eventually expelled by the invading Muslims from Egypt and Arabia. Goths and Ostrogoths sacked Spain and Italy itself. West of Greece and Egypt, what had once been the Roman Empire was divided into petty states and kingdoms.

During this period, the title of Senator still had some limited significance, but it was only ceremonial. In the A.D. 700's, Gregory of Tours wrote his History of the Franks, who were highly Romanized by the time they took political control of Gaul. He was quick to note that his family had once had Senatorial rank. But, by the time of Gregory's ancestors, the title was utterly meaningless and was useful mostly as an honourific and as a mark of nobility or higher social class, a mark of honur from a bygone age. It had no real institutional significance.

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