Political Science Of The State

16 POLITICAL SCIENCK.
i. The Senate of Rome, consisting, according in tratlitinn,
of the heads of the three hundrni nri}*iiui j;
7fa Senac* belonging in equal numhtTs M I he llirnr ori
tribes, was a body of lifc-Ionjj counsellors of tin* lvwi;s
materially differing from those in the iMrly «lr«'rk iii**iMt
of which we have already .spoken. At the br^innim; *kf the
republic, according to n tradition acccptm] by all llur undent
writers who have spoken on thi* subject, an addition »»f as
many as one hundred and four member* \V,-IH matlc In the
senate on account of the reduction uf its number* at the
revolution, and these were taken from the plebeian *wlrr,
The new members were called wnstriptif ami/*f/jvjr r*»*/*
came to mean the same as if it were gin ftitrts. quit/it?
scripti) which for shortness* sake became ftttrft ttWM
The smallness of the number of patrician members then ex
isting is accounted for by the violence of the last Tanjuiti,
which spent itself chiefly on his principal foes, Thm much
is historical—that there were plebeian senator* like I1. IJci
nius Calvus, the first military tribune with consular power
taken from the phbs (Livy, v.t \2); ami it in probable that
numbers of wealthy members of that order were al the time
mentioned brought into the patrician council in artier to add
strength to that body. But when the consuls appointed the
senators, as the kings did before them, and when the patrician
feeling became more intense after the power of the king* was
taken away, it is probable that the number uf theae plebeian
members diminished with the course of time, It was good
policy to choose into the senate a few such men, whose in*
terests on the whole coincided with those of the ruling order,
and who were thus ia a degree separated from the humbler
plebeians. The tradition makes the plebeian senators to
have been excluded from debate; they gave no opinion, but
on a division went to the side or quarter which they preferred.
When the consulship was open to this order, the chief magis-
trates being asked their opinion before the rest, thi* degra-
dation, must erelong have ceased.
The consuls^ and afterwards the censors, determined who