which made part of the Roman law. When any public matter was introduced into the senate, which was always called referre ad senatum, any senator whose opinion was asked, was permitted to speak upon it as long, as he pleased, and on that account it was often usual for the senators to protract their speeches till it was too late to determine. When the question was put, they passed to the side of that speaker whose opinion they approved, and a majority of votes was easily collected, without the trouble of counting the numbers. When the majority was known, the matter was determined, and a senatus consultum was immediately written by the clerks of the house, at the feet of the chief magistrates, and it was signed by all the principal members of the house. When there was not a sufficient number of members to make a senate, the decision was called senatus auctoritas, but it was of no force if it did not afterwards pass into a senatus consultum.

The senatus consulta were at first left in the custody of the kings, and afterward of the consuls, who could suppress or preserve them; but about the year of Rome 304, they were always deposited in the temple of Ceres, and afterwards in the treasury, by the ediles of the people.