The story of the Roman Senate goes way back to a time before there was an accurate written history for Rome. The Senate was composed of leading citizens who were members of the original aristocratic families in the old Republic. The original purpose of this group was to advise the King. This worked well during the first two centuries of Rome's existence when Rome was little more than a city-state built on seven hills and ruled by a king. United States Senate is the smaller of the two legislative bodies of the Congress of the United States. Along with the House of Representatives, it drafts and passes laws that, when signed by the president; govern the United States and its citizens. In this paper I will compare and contrast US and Roman senate.
The initial 100 senators or advisory council, traditionally instituted by the mythical Romulus, were composed of the heads of leading families, the patricians (Patres=Fathers). The later drafted Plebeian senators were called Conscripti (Conscripted men), as they had no choice but to take a senate seat. The eventual nomenclature to describe Senators, Patres et Conscripti (Conscript Fathers), soon left out any distinction between Patrician and Plebeian and came to be an all encompassing term.
Members of the Senate were chosen from among eligible equites, and selected by Consuls, Tribunes and later by Censors. Alternatively, they were selected from those who were elected to previous magistracies, such as quaestors (James, 2001). If not previously a member of the Senate, a magistrate ending his year of service in one these offices would then be eligible for an immediate seat. Not all Senators held equal status, however. Those selected by censors or other magistrates to fill seats from among the equites had no right to vote or to speak on the Senate floor..................
