Its Influence on Elections. — Under ordinary circumstances the senate was able to control the elections and even appointments to the dictatorship. It usually defined the official spheres of the consuls and in some degree those of other magistrates. It had begun by its mere decree to extend the terms (imperium prorogare) of magistrates on duty outside the city, who then discharged their functions in place of a consul or praetor (pro consule, pro praetore). This power was almost on a par with the right of election.
Its Influence on Administration. — The senate was supreme in administrative affairs. It exercised a governing influence on foreign relations, the condition of the Roman subjects and allies, the management of the public domain, public works, and the whole system of finance, — in fact, on every matter of general and permanent importance. Unless authorized by a senatorial decree, no payment could be made from the public treasury except to the consul. But in general the senate did not interfere in the details of judicial and military administration.
Senatorial Government. — While the senate had no doubt always been an important constitutional organ, it was now the chief factor in the government. It contained all the political sagacity and statesmanship of Rome, and governed by virtue of its capacity for government. It acted with partiality in domestic affairs that affected the landed and moneyed interests of its members, but in foreign affairs it represented the state in a manner worthy of the sovereign of the West. It enabled the Roman people to attain national unity under a system of self-government — the only instance in ancient times — and to maintain this government for more than two centuries. In political sagacity and consistency, in patriotism, courage, grasp of power, and tenacity of purpose, the Roman senate was the foremost political body of all antiquity.
