The Senate, Roman-Style

Yesterday, we took a trip back to old Athens, to see how the ancient Greeks first did democracy. Today's virtual road leads to Rome--specifically, the Roman Senate, a place that could really get rough.

It's true. On a particularly divisive day in the U.S. Senate, party leaders publicly disparage each other and strive to sabotage each other's policy plans. On a particularly divisive day in 133 BC, Roman senators smashed furniture and beat Tiberius Gracchus to death with a chair leg.

This is the institution that inspired America's founders? Yes, it is. In the early United States of America, leaders like John Adams, James Madison, and James Monroe cited Roman histories as they searched for a system of checks and balances. So, with Americans preparing to pick one of two senators as the next U.S. president, let's go to Rome.

Rome's Old Men

The word senator comes from the Latin word senex, meaning "old man"--making a senate, literally, "a council of elders." Such councils had long given advice to the kings of Rome. Then, around 500 BC, the Romans ditched the kings, but kept the advisory council.

For the next five centuries--the years of the Roman Republic--Rome was ruled by elected administrators called consuls. Unlike kings, consuls were elected every year, and Roman law required that there always be two of them, each with the power to veto the other's plans. These consuls sat atop a hierarchy of elected political administrators called magistrates, who ran Rome on a daily basis. The magistrates oversaw everything from the census to the centurions. Like the consuls, they held office for just one year.

Revolving Rulers

Then there was the Senate. During the Republic, most Roman senators came from powerful families that had ruled Rome for generations. They tended to be wealthy older men who were inclined to form factions and make deals to advance their causes. (Sound familiar?) They knew no term limits--as long as you didn't go broke or get kicked out for some transgression, you could stay in the Senate for life. But they never got a paycheck. Rome's senators were volunteers.

The citizens of Rome elected their consuls and other magistrates, but not their senators, who were chosen by the magistrates. In practice, it was a "revolving door" setup. Most men who served as magistrates were appointed to the Senate when their terms ended. Those same fellows would serve in the Senate for a while, then work as magistrates again before returning to the Senate. Being a magistrate could be lucrative, so competition for those jobs was fierce.

Vox Populi

The Senate wrote most of Rome's laws, but it didn't have the authority to pass them on its own. All it could do was advise the magistrates and make recommendations. For recommendations to become laws, popular assemblies had to vote to approve them. Roman citizens--free men above military age--gathered regularly in such assemblies, both to enact the laws recommended by the Senate and to elect consuls and other magistrates.

By giving regular folks some say in the legislative process and the election of officeholders, the Roman government guaranteed that even the most aristocratic snob had to court the masses. Still, Rome's days as a republic were numbered by 44 BC, when Julius Caesar was murdered by senators who feared he would crown himself king. Under Caesar's successor, Augustus, the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire, and the importance of the Senate waned.