Search Results - Roman senate

The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being founded before the first king of Rome ascended the throne^{[citation needed]} (traditionally dated to 753 BC). It survived the fall of the Roman Kingdom in 509 BC, the fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC, the split of the Roman Empire in 285 AD, and the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. During the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, the tyrant Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, (otherwise known as Tarquin the Proud), was overthrown following a coup d'état led by Lucius Junius Brutus that had been orchestrated in the senate.^[1]

During the early republic, the senate was politically weak, while the executive magistrates were quite powerful. Since the transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was probably quite gradual, it took several generations before the senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle republic, the senate reached the apex of its republican power. The late republic saw a decline in the senate's power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.

However, unlike the senate of the republic, the senate of the empire was not politically independent. With the loss of its independence to the emperor, it lost its prestige and eventually much of its power. Following the constitutional reforms of the emperor Diocletian, the senate became politically irrelevant, and never regained the power that it had once held. When the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the senate was reduced to a municipal body. This image was reinforced when the emperor Constantine I created an additional senate in Constantinople. After the Western Roman Empire fell in 476, the senate in the west functioned for a time under barbarian rule before being restored after reconquest of much of the Western Roman Empire's territories during the reign of Justinian I, until it ultimately disappeared. However, the Eastern senate survived in Constantinople, before the ancient institution finally vanished there too.