![]() ![]() Thus, after this point in time, election to magisterial office resulted in automatic Senate membership. This law also required the censors to appoint any newly elected magistrate to the Senate. Around the year 318 BC, the " Ovinian Plebiscite" ( plebiscitum Ovinium) gave this power to another Roman magistrate, the censor, who retained this power until the end of the Roman Republic. They also had the power to remove individuals from the Senate. Originally the chief magistrates, the consuls, appointed all new senators. It developed from the Senate of the Roman Kingdom, and became the Senate of the Roman Empire. The power and authority of the Senate derived from precedent, the high caliber and prestige of the senators, and the Senate's unbroken lineage, which dated back to the founding of the Republic in 509 BC. However, since the Senate controlled money, administration, and the details of foreign policy, it had the most control over day-to-day life. Polybius noted that it was the consuls (the highest-ranking of the regular magistrates) who led the armies and the civil government in Rome, and it was the Roman assemblies which had the ultimate authority over elections, legislation, and criminal trials. According to the Greek historian Polybius, the principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government. After a Roman magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic appointment to the Senate. It was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. The Senate was the governing and advisory assembly of the aristocracy in the ancient Roman Republic. ![]()
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