- sidered was the police-control which the Senate exercised in
Rome. Here, as in other matters of administration, its attention was confined to great and exceptional emergencies. In the absence of all facilities for the expression of public opinion in Rome, except through the medium of a magistrate, the ancient trade guilds (collegia artificum) formed convenient centres for electioneering in the democratic interest. The fact that towards the close of the Republic their weight was thrown into the anti-senatorial scale led the government to regard their existence as inimical to public order. A decree of the Senate of the year 64 B.C. summarily dissolved all but the most venerable guilds which were supposed to derive their origin from Numa;[1] and this sudden suppression may be regarded as a last step in a long career of administrative interference, no record of which has been preserved by history. Private political clubs, on the other hand, such as were known by the names of sodalitates and decuriati, did not come under the immediate cognisance of the magistrate; for their coercion the Senate had to procure the passing of a law.[2] But minor details connected with bribery and corruption were within its competence. It infringed the inviolability of the magistrate's house by allowing search to be made there for incriminating proof of corruption, and it directed that whoever should be guilty of harbouring professional election agents (divisores) at his dwelling should be liable to a vote of censure and possible prosecution.[3]
If we now turn from the corrective to the administrative activity of the Senate, we shall find that this was exhibited chiefly in the departments of foreign relations, finance, and religion.
The primary spheres of foreign activity are the declaration of war, the making of peace, and the framing of alliances. All these powers belonged of right to the people, and, as regards the first, there was never any question that the Senate's position was merely that of a constant adviser. The two latter powers, the decuriati probably electioneering associations.]
- ↑ Cic. in Pis. 4, 9; pro Sest. 25, 55; Dio Cass. xxxviii. 13.
- ↑ Cic. ad Q. fr. ii. 3, 5 (56 B.C.) "senatus consultum factum est ut sodalitates decuriatique discederent lexque de iis ferretur ut, qui non discessissent, ea poena quae est de vi tenerentur." The sodalitates were clubs of the type of the Greek [Greek: hetaireiai
- ↑ Cic. ad Att. i. 16, 12 (61 B.C.) "senatus consulta duo jam facta sunt odiosa . . . unum, ut apud magistratus inquiri liceret, alterum, cujus domi divisores habitarent, adversus rem publicam."
