This alone ensured that the Senate and its members remained relevant and important. The Roman Senate started life as an advisory council, filled entirely with patricians. In the last two centuries ...

It was graphic way for Caligula to express his contempt for the Roman Senate. It was a way of proving that he could not merely bend the Senators to his will, but he could humiliate them as well.

Over time, the Senate would be open to Roman citizens from outside Italy. By the end of the first century, even the emperor himself would be born abroad.

Cicero points out that the Roman senate derives its name from the fact that it was originally an assembly of old men, or senes in the original Latin. Older people have the wisdom, judgement ...

Oh, I’ll leave them to convince you. The two most powerful people in the senate were the consuls. Every year, the citizens of the Roman Republic voted for who they wanted to be consul.