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THE SENATORS
THE Senate was the grandest institution of pagan Rome. Outside the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, there never was an assembly
more powerful, more united, more lasting. It has passed through the
wars, the storms and vicissitudes of twenty-five centuries, and still
exists. Springing from obscurity, it moved insensibly into power, until
it ruled the world. It rose amid a band of fugitives, truant slaves, and
highwaymen—was founded by Romulus about 750 B.C. It consisted first of a
hundred of the oldest and most respectable men of the little colony of
exiles and slaves that settled down among the Seven Hills ; hence its
name of Senate, or assembly of old men or fathers. It was increased to
two hundred when the rape of the Sabines brought a union between the
two tribes. Under Tarquin the number was raised to three hundred, and
under the Emperors, it reached as high as a thousand. All power was
placed in their hands. The chief magistrate, although he bore the title
of king, was but the commander of the army, and presided over the
religion of the state. The Senate declared war or peace, and treated
with the ambassadors of other nations. They wore a different kind of
dress from the ordinary people; they had a special place appointed for
them in he Coliseum and in all public functions , they were forbidden
to traffic or intermarry with the persons of base extraction. Amongst
the prohibited were actresses, and their daughters and grand-daughters.
An ancient writer gives a detailed idea of the powers reserved to the
Senate. In the days of its glory it was the sole source and centre
of the power and greatness of Rome. "Nothing," says Polybius, "could
go in or out of the treasury without its consent ; it was the highest
administration of the state. It judged the differences which arose
between the cities and provinces that submitted to the Empire; it
corrected or defended them when necessary. It enrolled the army and
supplied their pay ; it sent its consuls to the battlefield, and
recalled them at will, or sent other generals to replace them; it
declared the triumph and measured the glory of the conqueror; no public
monument could be raised to the memory of the great without its consent.
It was in fine the grand court of appeal for the nations of the
earth—the sole representative of the Roman people."
If we add to their unlimited legal power the ascendancy that the
senators of Rome must have naturally gained from their wealth, their
personal merit, their patriotism and their union, we can easily
understand how they influenced the destinies of so many nations.
When we read the annals of this great institution, we are struck with
the gravity of its debates, and the boldness and independence of its
acts, ever mingled and directed by prudence and foresight. No authority
was recognized among them but reason ; instead of party spirit,
jealousy, and partiality, one grand and noble feeling presided over
their assembly, and guided their actions—it was the public good. This
was the secret of their triumph and their power.
The early history of the Senate is wrapt up in the history of Rome
itself, and is inseparable from it. But, as the events we are about to
relate took place in that era of Rome in which the Coliseum flourished,
we must glance at its character at that time during those days of
persecution.
After the political convulsions that shook the Empire, drove Cicero
in exile, and placed Caesar at the head of affairs, the Senate received
a blow from which it never recovered. The form of the Roman government
was completely changed; the people, who had conquered the patricians,
yielded up all their rights to their chief, and the whole power of the
Empire became concentrated in one man. Caesar assumed the title of
Dictator and Emperor, and therewith the rights of the Supreme Pontiff,
the authority of the censors, and of the praetorship. Thus he
controlled the treasury—had the right of declaring peace or war—the
disposition of the provinces, and the election of the magistrates. His
ambition was fatal to the power of the Senate, and although it continued
its meetings, and sustained the splendour of its former prestige, yet it
was nothing more than a political assembly, a grand council of the
state, that enjoyed only as much power as its ambitious chief consented
to give.
It is not, however, to be supposed that the Senators submitted to
these changes without a murmur. A spirit of envy and indignation showed
itself in their public and private actions , and the first Emperor was
too sharp-sighted not to see a terrible revenge flashing from a hundred
poniards in the very halls of the Senate. A policy of conciliation only
retarded the fatal blow. He knew their power even in the very memories
of the past; and although he had triumphed over them as the idol of a
mob, yet he could not afford to trample on the patricians and lose their
support.
His policy was to neutralize the opposition of the inheritors of the
old patrician power, by adding to their number from his own most devoted
followers, and he immediately raised the Senate to nine hundred; he
increased in proportion the number of magistrates, and filled some of
the most important offices with his own adherents. It was by this means
that men from the provinces of Etruria and Lucania, and Venetians,
Insubrians, and others, barbarian and illiterate, were poured in to
deteriorate and corrupt the great patriarchal institution of the Empress
City. This roused more than ever the indignation of the aristocratic
party, and even the great Cicero murmured, and his powerful pen
accelerated the ruin that was coming. Suetonius tells us, that nothing
could be heard but verses and songs ridiculing the new senators; galling
insinuations, that they were a conquered race of barbarians, and that
Caesar had made them change their skins for the laticlave. On the
Pasquin of that time (most probably the same old disfigured statue that
stands at one of the angles of the Braschi Palace) were put up notices
to this effect : " Let no one show the strangers the way to the Forum."
The indignation of the old patricians went on increasing. Though
robbed and humbled, they were resolute and determined. Their discontent
at last burst out into passion and fury, and, led on by the impetuous
Brutus, they resolved on Caesar's death. He fell. His bleeding body was
still lying at the base of Pompey's statue in the Forum, whilst the
forty wretches who had assassinated him rushed through the streets with
their daggers in their hands, still reeking with the blood of the
Dictator, and crying out: "Death to all tyrants." Yet their triumph
was but temporary. That venerable body did not recover its power and
prestige by violence and bloodshed ; they will not recover it now; the
decrees of Providence are against it; it may exist, but will never again
rule the world.
The revolution of the Ides of March, as it is called, robbed the
world of its greatest man. Brutus boasted of having slain a tyrant, but
the provinces wept over Caesar's death. The cry of grief and public
mourning that rose through the whole Empire was the condemnation of the
murderers. It was evident to all that the Jealousy and ambition of a
body of factious citizens caused the death of Caesar, not the true love
of liberty, nor zeal for the welfare of the state." They called themselves slayers of a tyrant," says Dion Cassius, a senator himself, who
lived about a century afterwards, " but they were nothing more than
assassins and murderers " (No. xliv. l).
Caesar was beloved in the provinces. Its magistrates, the army, and
even the greater part of the Senate, lamented his fall. The outer world
cared nothing about the supremacy of the Senate. What advantage did they
reap from the politics or agitations of the Roman Forum? As long as
they enjoyed liberty, prosperity and justice from their acknowledged
chief, why should they espouse the cause of the Senate? Moreover, the
assembly itself had fallen from its pristine integrity. Its effeminacy,
its partiality, and departure from the rigor and patriotism of its
ancient institution, drew on it contempt rather than submission and
admiration. Long before the monarchy of Caesar, the great Cicero spoke
these remarkable words, indicating its moral as well as political
degeneration :—"It is on account of our vices, and not from any stroke
of fortune, that, although we preserve the name of a republic, we have
long since lost the reality."—-" Nostris, non casu aliquo, rempublicam
verbo retinemus, reipsa vero jam pridem amisimus."—De Repub. v. i.
The blood of Caesar was shed in vain ; the anarchical faction of the
Senate never held the reins of government; the poniards that slew him
commenced for the Senate the most terrible and disastrous period of its
career. In the civil wars and convulsions that followed, they not only
lost the last vestige of their former power, but became the victims of
the caprice or revenge of the ambitious aspirants to the supreme power
of the Empire.
Augustus assumed, the scepter of Caesar. His reorganization of the
Senate was one of the most splendid, because most difficult, feats of
his successful reign. By 1118 influence he caused nearly two hundred of
its members, who were not fitted by birth or talent for their high
position and honours, to resign their places. He calmed their
suspicions, and concealed his ambition by assuming the humble title of
Prince of the Senate. Nevertheless, during the time that was occupied in
this work of reformation, he never appeared amongst them without having
near him nine or ten of his most faithful adherents, who were secretly
armed, and he himself carried his dagger under his toga. He prudently
feared their resentment. Eleven years afterwards, in the year 18 before
Christ, he completed the organization, and reduced their number to six
hundred; and thus commenced the imperial Senate.
It is unnecessary to follow the noble institution in its after career
of servility and degradation during the reign of the succeeding
Emperors.
After the abdication of Diocletian, and the triumph of
Constantine, the Senate struggled on in its hereditary existence. Its
name was torn from the Capitol and the military standards: in its place
was substituted the more formidable and imperishable sign of redemption.
The statue and altar of Victory, which presided as a tutelary deity over
its assemblies, were removed under Constance, brought back under the
apostate Julian, and finally destroyed by their own unanimous consent.
There were still many among them who clung to the old rites of paganism;
but, ever docile to the command of the Emperor, under Theodosius the
worship of the gods of the Capitol was proscribed, and Christianity
declared to be the religion of the Senate and Roman people. "It was
then," says the sublime Prudens, "that we saw those venerable fathers,
those most brilliant lights of the world, the noble council of Catos,
cast off the insignia of the old priesthood, and humbly clothe
themselves in the white robe of catechumens."
"Exnitare patres videas, pulcherrima inundi
Lumina, conciliumque senum gesture Catonum,
Candidiore toga nivenm pietatis amictnm
Sum ere, et exuvias
deponere pontificales."
Whilst, however, the power and independence of the Senate had
passed away, it must not be forgotten that it was still the highest and
most influential body in the Empire. Its members were the nobles of the
land, and possessed immense wealth. According to Dion Cassius a
senator's fortune amounted to a million sesterces ; and if we believe
Suetonius, some of them had annually a return equal to two million
sesterces, about £105,000, which should be multiplied by ten to arrive
at even a proximate idea of the value of money at that time. In a city
of at least 3,000,000 of people, they were the principal and leading
members. The usurpers of the imperial throne persecuted them, because
they knew and feared their power. Moreover, when historians make sweeping assertions respecting the immorality and effeminacy of the
great assembly, there must have been amongst them brilliant exceptions.
History itself records names of honour and worth which flourished in the
Senate in its very worst days ; many of these were Christians, and even
martyrs, who shed their blood in the Coliseum in defense of the faith. |
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