Senate Consultant

The right to cum patribus agendi, that is, to make reports ( referre ), question opinions ( consulere ), vote ( discessionem facere ) and edit the majority opinion ( Senatus consultum facere, perscribere ) belonged to:

• from among emergency magistrates:
  • decemvirs appointed to write laws ( X viri legibus scribundis ),
  • military stands with consular power ( tribuni militum consulari potestate ),
  • to the dictator
  • to the chief of the cavalry ,
  • to the inter-king ( interrex ),
  • to the head of the city ( praefectus urbi ),
• and from among the next:
  • consuls
  • praetors and,
  • from the 4th century - to the plebeian tribunes .

In connection with the participation that the presiding magistrates and the senate had in the Senate Consultation, the decree of the senate was called decretum , because it was a magistrate act, and consultum , because it was an act of the corporation of senators ( Mommsen , “Römicshes Staatsrecht”, III, 994 pp.). In the ancient period of the republic, the participation of the magistrate was predominant: he facit senatus-consultum. Later, the value of the magistrate decreases, and only Senatus sententia, or Senatus-consultum remains, although the terms decerno and decretum are still in use, and decernere becomes equivalent to censere. According to Willems, senatus decretum means each article of the report voted separately.

Senate consultants did not have the law, although the more energetic and influential the speaker and the stronger the influence of the Senate, the more important the Senate Consultant was. According to Mommsen, while the Senate decree was decretum in the proper sense, it did not oblige the magistrate and his successor and could be limited to the year of the magistracy of the speaker.

With the gradual strengthening of the role of the senate, the senate advisers approached the concept of law , and starting in August they acquired the full force of laws (Gaius, I, 83–86).

Republican senate advisers were, in essence, administrative orders, and only occasionally used them to change state law. The Senate Consultant acquired the force of law only when he was proposed through rogatio for the approval of the people. There have been cases when senate advisers acquired the force of law without the sanction of comitia, but such usurpations of the senate provoked a protest from the legislative bodies of the anti-Senate party. Although the execution of the Senate Consultant was not legally necessary, in fact, cases of non-execution were rare, since a lifelong senatorial authority could easily break the persistence of the annual magistracy.

As government orders, the Senate Consul was appointed to protect the state religiously and to defend the rights and interests of the state treasury, publishers, Italians and provincials. The Senate consultant was drawn up in two ways: either through discessio in case of unanimity, or through a survey of individual senators in case of disagreement.

Every Senate consultant consisted of an introduction, a statement accompanied by a brief indication of motives (relatio), and a decree beginning with the formula: d (e) e (a) r (e) i (ta) c (ensuere). The term censuere was repeated after each article, which was subjected to a separate vote. If it was intended to convert the Senate adviser into law, then at the end the words were added: ut de ea re ad populum ferretur.

During the period of the republic, the name of the Senate adviser was determined by its content (e.g. Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, Senatus consultum de quis in urbe sepeliretur, etc.); in the imperial era, Senatus consultum was named after the speaker (e.g. Senatus consultum Claudianum, Juventianum, Largianum, Libonianum, etc.). If the Senate consultants were appealing to the Greek communities, then a Greek translation was made next to the Latin text.

The Senate Consultant, who received the final edition, was transferred to the state archive (aerarium Saturni), where, under the supervision of quaestors, he corresponded with the official journal. Since 449, the plebeian aediles were allowed to take official copies from the Senate Consul for storage in the plebeian archives.

If the stands or the higher magistrate imposed a veto on the report, then the Senate adviser, even if unanimous, did not receive administrative power and was called Senātus auctoritas ; nevertheless, according to the generally accepted rule, the senate ordered its editing.

Several genuine senate advisers of the republican period, in whole or in fragmentary form, have survived to our time. Of these, the most famous:

• a) in Latin :
  • a fragment of the Senateusconsult de Bacchanalibus (186 BC), carved on a bronze plaque and representing an excerpt from the full Senateconsult, officially reported by the consuls to the magistrates of the Teuran region. in Bruttias (a fragment was discovered in Calabria in 1640, now stored in Vienna, published in Corpus Inscriptionum Lat. Mommsen, No. 196);
  • excerpt from the Senateusconsult de Tiburtibus (159 BC);
  • Fragment of the Senateuskonsult de Asclepiade (87 BC);
• b) in Greek :
  • Senate Consultant de Delphis (198 B.C.)
  • two senatusconsultants de Thisbis (170 BC),
  • Senate consultant de Prienensibus et Samiis (135 BC);
• in Greek with Latin translation:
  • Senate consultant de philosophis et rhetoribus (161 BC, reported by Suet. Rhet. I: Gell. XV, 11),
  • de hastis Martiis (99 B.C.)
  • de provinciis consularibus, three Senate consultants de Judaeis (139, 133 and 44 BC) and others.

In addition to the ordinary Senate advisers, there were the so-called Senatus consulta tacita, ruled behind closed doors, and Senatus consulta ultima, which had been voted since the time of the Gracchus because of internal unrest or open rebellion.

Senatus consultum ultimum granted magistrates (consuls, praetors, tribunes, etc.) special powers similar to those of a dictator, and began with the formula: Videant, dent operam consules (praetores, etc.), ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat.

In the imperial era, an intercession (veto) against senate consultants, held on the basis of a report by the emperor ( Oratio principis ), was impossible. The editorship of the senate adviser was carried out in the same way as in the days of the republic, but the number of senators present was also mentioned. The storage of the senate advisers was entrusted to a senator of investor rank, appointed by the emperor for an indefinite period and called ab actia senatus.

• The senate
• Acta senatus
• Oratio principis

• Litvinov D.A. Roman senate and senatusconsulta in the 2nd century BC. Some competences in external affairs by the example of senatusconsultum de Tiburtibus (Russian) // IVS ANTIQVVM. Ancient law . - 2006. - No. 18 . - S. 73-79 .
• Bieling, “De differentia inter senatus auctoritatem, consultum et decretum” (Minden, 1846);
• Rein, “Senatus consultum” (in “Realencyclopädie”, Pauly, T. VI, 1031);
• Soltau, Die Gültigkeit der Plebiscite (B., 1884);
• Pick, "De Senatus consultis Romanorum" (B., 1884);
• Willems, “Le Sénat de la République Romaine” (Louvain, 1878, 1883, especially II vol., Pp. 121–237);
• Mommsen , “Römisches Staatsrecht” (III volume, B., 1888, p. 994 words);
• Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (L., 1891, II vol., P. 636 et seq.);
• Willems, “Roman State Law” (I edition, p. 217 et seq., Kiev, 1888).

• Obnorsky N.P. Senatusconsult // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.