in general, is an assembly or council of senators, that is, of the principal inhabitants of a state, who have a share in the government.

The senate of ancient Rome is of all others the most celebrated. It exercised no contentious jurisdiction, but appointed judges, either from among the senators or knights, to determine processes. It also appointed governors of provinces, and disposed of the revenues of the commonwealth. Yet the whole sovereign power did not reside in the senate, since it could not elect magistrates, make laws, or decide of war and peace; for, in all these cases, the senate was obliged to consult the people.

The senate, when first instituted by Romulus, consisted of a hundred members; to whom he afterwards added the same number when the Sabines had migrated to Rome. Tarquin the ancient made the senate consist of three hundred, and this number remained fixed for a long time; but afterwards it fluctuated greatly, and was increased, first to seven hundred, and afterwards to nine hundred, by Julius Caesar, who filled the senate with men of every rank and order. Under Augustus the senators amounted to a thousand; but this number was reduced, and fixed at six hundred. The place of senator was always bestowed upon merit. The monarchs had the privilege of choosing the members; and after the expulsion of the Tarquins, it was one of the rights of the consuls, until the election of the censors, who from their office seemed most capable of making choice of men whose character was irreproachable, whose morals were pure, and whose relations were honourable. Only particular families were admitted into the senate; and when the plebeians were permitted to share the honours of the state, it was then required that they should be born of free citizens. It was also required that the candidates should be knights before their admission into the senate. They were to be above the age of twenty-five, and to have previously passed through the inferior offices of quæstor, tribune of the people, edile, praetor, and consul.

The senate always met on the first of January for the inauguration of the new consuls; and in all months, universally, there were three days, the calends, nones, and ides, on which it regularly met. But it always met on extraordinary occasions, when called together by consul, tribune, or dictator.

To render their decrees valid and authentic, a certain number of members was requisite, and such as were absent without some proper cause were always fined. In the reign of Augustus, four hundred senators were requisite to make a senate. Nothing was transacted before sunrise or after sunset. In their office the senators were the guardians of religion; they disposed of the provinces as they pleased; they prorogued the assemblies of the people; they appointed thanksgivings, nominated their ambassadors, and distributed the public money; and, in short, they had the management of every thing political or civil in the republic, except the creating of magistrates, the enacting of laws, and the declaration of war or peace, which were confined to the assemblies of the people.