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The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city (traditionally founded in 753 BC). It survived the overthrow of the kings in 509 BC, the fall of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC, the division of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, and the barbarian rule of Rome in the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries. During the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown following a coup d'état led by Lucius Junius Brutus, who founded the Republic. 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 gradual, it took several generations before the Senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic, the Senate had 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. After the transition of the Republic into the Principate, the Senate lost much of its political power as well as its prestige. 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 decline in status was reinforced when the emperor Constantine the Great 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 the reconquest of much of the Western Roman Empire's territories during the reign of Justinian I. The Senate in Rome ultimately disappeared at some point between 603 and 630. However, the Eastern Senate survived in Constantinople, until the ancient institution finally vanished there circa 14th century. ==Senate of the Roman Kingdom== The senate was a political institution in the ancient Roman kingdom. The word ''senate'' derives from the Latin word ''senex'', which means "old man"; the word thus means "assembly of elders". The prehistoric Indo-Europeans who settled Italy in the centuries before the legendary founding of Rome in 753 BC〔Abbott, 3〕 were structured into tribal communities,〔Abbott, 1〕 and these communities often included an aristocratic board of tribal elders.〔Abbott, 12〕 The early Roman family was called a ''gens'' or "clan",〔Abbott, 1〕 and each clan was an aggregation of families under a common living male patriarch, called a ''pater'' (the Latin word for "father").〔Abbott, 6〕 When the early Roman ''gentes'' were aggregating to form a common community, the ''patres'' from the leading clans were selected〔Abbott, 16〕 for the confederated board of elders that would become the Roman senate.〔Abbott, 6〕 Over time, the ''patres'' came to recognize the need for a single leader, and so they elected a king (''rex''),〔Abbott, 6〕 and vested in him their sovereign power.〔Byrd, 42〕 When the king died, that sovereign power naturally reverted to the ''patres''.〔Abbott, 6〕 The senate is said to have been created by Rome's first king, Romulus, initially consisting of 100 men. The descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class.〔Livy, ''Ab urbe condita'', 1:8〕 Rome's fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, chose a further 100 senators. They were chosen from the minor leading families, and were accordingly called the ''patres minorum gentium''.〔Livy, ''Ab urbe condita'', 1:35〕 Rome's seventh and final king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, executed many of the leading men in the senate, and did not replace them, thereby diminishing their number. However, in 509 BC Rome's first consuls, Lucius Junius Brutus and Publius Valerius Publicola chose from amongst the leading equites new men for the senate, these being called ''conscripti'', and thus increased the size of the senate to 300.〔Livy, ''Ab urbe condita'', 2.1〕 The senate of the Roman kingdom held three principal responsibilities: It functioned as the ultimate repository for the executive power,〔Abbott, 10〕 it served as the king's council, and it functioned as a legislative body in concert with the people of Rome.〔Abbott, 17〕 During the years of the monarchy, the senate's most important function was to elect new kings. While the king was technically elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose each new king.〔Abbott, 10〕 The period between the death of one king, and the election of a new king, was called the ''interregnum'',〔Abbott, 10〕 during which time the Interrex nominated a candidate to replace the king.〔Abbott, 14〕 After the senate gave its initial approval to the nominee, he was then formally elected by the people,〔Byrd, 20〕 and then received the senate's final approval.〔Abbott, 14〕 At least one king, Servius Tullius, was elected by the senate alone, and not by the people.〔Livy, ''Ab urbe condita'', 1.41〕 The senate's most significant task, outside of regal elections, was to function as the king's council, and while the king could ignore any advice it offered, its growing prestige helped make the advice that it offered increasingly difficult to ignore. Technically, the senate could also make new laws, although it would be incorrect to view the senate's decrees as "legislation" in the modern sense. Only the king could decree new laws, although he often involved both the senate and the curiate assembly (the popular assembly) in the process.〔Abbott, 17〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Roman Senate」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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