Roman Antiquities, and Ancient Mythology | Page 5

assemblies of the people, and courts of justice; also of births and
funerals, of marriages and divorces, &c. which served as a fund of
information for historians.
In writing a decree, the time and place were put first; then, the names of
those who were present at the engrossing of it; after that, the motion
with the name of the magistrate who proposed it; to all which was
subjoined what the Senate decreed.
The decrees were kept in the public treasury with the laws and other
writings, pertaining to the republic. Anciently they were kept in the
temple of Ceres. The place where the public records were kept was
called "Tabularium." The decrees of the Senate concerning the honors
conferred on Cæsar were inscribed in golden letters, on columns of
silver. When not carried to the treasury, they were reckoned invalid.
Hence it was ordained under Tiberius, that the decrees of the Senate,
especially concerning the capital punishment of any one, should not be
carried there before the tenth day, that the emperor, if absent from the
city, might have an opportunity of considering them, and if he thought
proper of mitigating them.
Decrees of the Senate were rarely reversed. While a question was under
debate, every one was at freedom to express his dissent; but when once
determined, it was looked upon as the common concern of each
member to support the opinion of the majority.

The power of the Senate was different at different times. Under the
regal government, the Senate deliberated upon such affairs as the king
proposed to them, and the kings were said to act according to their
counsel as the consuls did afterwards according to their decrees.
Tarquin the proud, dropped the custom handed down from his
predecessors, of consulting the Senate about everything; banished or
put to death the chief men of that order, and chose no others in their
room; but he was expelled from the throne for his tyranny, and the
regal government abolished, A. U. 243. Afterwards the power of the
Senate was raised to the highest. Everything was done by its authority.
The magistrates were in a manner only its ministers. But when the
Patricians began to abuse their power, and to exercise cruelty on the
Plebeians, especially after the death of Tarquin, the multitude took
arms in their own defence, made a secession from the city, seized on
Mons Sacer, and created tribunes for themselves, who attacked the
authority of the Senate, and in process of time greatly diminished it.
Although the supreme power at Rome belonged to the people, yet they
seldom enacted anything without the authority of the Senate. In all
weighty matters, the method usually observed was that the Senate
should first deliberate and decree, and then the people order.
The Senate assumed to themselves exclusively, the guardianship of the
public religion; so that no new god could be introduced, nor altar
erected, nor the Sybiline books consulted without their order. They had
the direction of the treasury, and distributed the public money at
pleasure. They appointed stipends to their generals and officers, and
provisions and clothing to the armies. They settled the provinces which
were annually assigned to the consuls and prætors, and when it seemed
fit, they prolonged their command. They nominated, out of their own
body, all ambassadors sent from Rome, and gave to foreign
ambassadors what answers they thought proper. They decreed all
public thanksgivings for victories obtained, and conferred the honor of
an ovation or triumph with the title of imperator on their victorious
generals. They could decree the title of king to any prince whom they
pleased, and declare any one an enemy by a vote. They inquired into all

public crimes or treasons, either in Rome or other parts of Italy; and
adjusted all disputes among the allied and dependent cities. They
exercised a power not only of interpreting the laws, but of absolving
men from the obligation of them. They could postpone the assemblies
of the people, and prescribe a change of habit to the city, in cases of
any imminent danger or calamity.
But their power was chiefly conspicuous in civil dissension or
dangerous tumults within the city, in which that solemn decree used to
be passed; "That the consuls should take care that the republic should
receive no harm." By which decree an absolute power was granted to
them to punish and put to death whom they pleased without a trial; to
raise forces and carry on war, without the order of the people.
Although the decrees of the Senate had not properly the force of laws,
and took place chiefly in those matters which were not provided for by
the laws, yet they were understood always to have a binding force, and
were therefore obeyed by