in general, denotes a member of some senate.

The dignity of a Roman senator could not be supported without the possession of 80,000 sesterces, or about 7000 English money; and therefore such as squandered away their money, and whose fortune was reduced below this sum, were generally struck out of the list of senators. This regulation was not made in the first ages of the republic, when the Romans boasted of their poverty. The senators were not permitted to be of any trade or profession. They were distinguished from the rest of the people by their dress; they wore the tunic, half-boots of a black colour, with a crescent or silver buckle in the form of a C; but this last honour was confined only to the descendants of those hundred senators who had been elected by Romulus, as the letter C seems to imply. See the preceding article.

Among us, senator is a member of parliament. In the laws of King Edward the Confessor, we are told that the Britons called these senators whom the Saxons called afterwards aldermen and borough-masters; though not for their age, but their wisdom; for some of them were young men, but very well skilled in the laws. Kenulph king of the Mercians granted a charter, which ran thus, viz. Consilio et consensu episcoporum et senatuum gentis suae largitus fuit dicto monasterio, &c.

In Scotland the lords of session are called senators of the college of justice.