Princeps senatus

The princeps senatus (pl. principes senatus) was the first member by precedence on the membership rolls of the Roman Senate. Although officially out of the cursus honorum and possessing no imperium, this office conferred prestige on the senator holding it.

Overview

The princeps senatus was not a lifetime appointment. He was chosen by every new pair of censors – usually every five years – but those censors usually retained the previous princeps senatus. The princeps senatus was selected from patrician senators and it was customary after the third century BC for a censorial pair to appoint the senior living ex-censor (though this was not required). Seniority among the ex-censors is the description given in Livy, which is the only source describing the process; however, Livy's description for the lectio in 209 BC notes that the censors passed over the traditionally senior member in favour of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus on account of his reputation. Mommsen also suggested that selection may have been limited to the senior patrician clans (the gentes maiores) but there is no ancient evidence of this; the various arguments suggesting this can be adequately explained by a growing shortage of qualified patrician candidates.

The office was established around the year 275 BC. Traditionally, the princeps senatus had the honour of speaking first on any motion or topic presented by the presiding magistrate. By the middle republic, the princeps senatus was the most prestigious position in Rome and had adduced further privileges: he moved all routine senate business, having power to have his input directly moulded into them by choosing their wording. He also set out the possible options on controversial proposals.

The last attested republican princeps senatus was Lucius Valerius Flaccus in 86 BC. The lack of future attestation has given rise to the belief by many modern scholars that Sulla's constitutional reforms abolished the position. By the time of Cicero, the Senate's first speaker was chosen by the presiding consul "demonstrating his own ranking-order ... in his first choice". It was, however, regular practice to ask the consul-elect first.

If the position had not been abolished by this time, its privileges would have been so reduced to an unimportant "decorative post". This was probably due to a number of factors. Foremost, giving the presiding consul the ability to choose who he wanted to speak first gave him the ability to bestow a great honour. Also importantly, through the 80s and 70s, the senior living ex-censors – the most senior members of the senate, in the absence of a formal princeps senatus due to the paucity of censorial lectiones – were largely uninfluential and unimportant men (in part because the other possible magistrates had been killed during the civil wars). Even when named first in the list of senators, they were largely so named by default or custom and were unable to assert speaking privileges before more influential, but junior, consulars.

The position was revived by Augustus in 28 BC; he, irregularly, appointed himself, even though the Julii were probably ineligible and he was not yet then one of the customary candidates (senior ex-censors). Regardless, Augustus held the office until his death; it then absorbed into the emperor's offices and powers.

In the emperor's absence, it is possible that a senator was granted the privilege of holding this role when the Senate met; the notoriously unreliable Historia Augusta claimed that during the Crisis of the Third Century, some others held the position; in particular, it stated that the future emperor Valerian held the office in 238, during the reigns of Maximinus Thrax and Gordian I, and he continued to hold it through to the reign of Decius. The same source also makes the same claim about Tacitus when the Senate acclaimed him emperor in AD 275.

Fasti Principum Senatus

	Mommsen	Willems	Suolahti	Ryan	Ryan's datation
1	M'. Valerius Maximus	M'. Valerius Maximus	M'. Valerius Maximus	Q. Fabius Maximus Rullianus	c.275–c.265
2	M. Fabius Ambustus	M. Fabius Ambustus	M. Fabius Ambustus	C. Marcius Rutilus Censorinus	265–before 258
3	Q. Fabius Maximus Rullianus	Q. Fabius Maximus Rullianus	Q. Fabius Maximus Rullianus	Q. Fabius Maximus Gurges	258–247 or 241
4	Q. Fabius Maximus Gurges	Q. Fabius Maximus Gurges	Q. Fabius Maximus Gurges	Cn. Cornelius Blasio	247 or 241–before 230
5	Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus	M. Fabius Buteo	M. Fabius Buteo	C. Duilius	c.230–225
6	P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus	Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus	Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus	M'. Valerius Maximus Corvinus Messalla	c.225–before 220
7	L. Valerius Flaccus	P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus	P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus	Aulus Manlius Torquatus Atticus	c.220–before 216
8	M. Aemilius Lepidus	L. Valerius Flaccus	L. Valerius Flaccus	M. Fabius Buteo	by 216–209
9	P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum	M. Aemilius Lepidus	M. Aemilius Lepidus	Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus	209–203
10	Ap. Claudius Pulcher	P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum	P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum	P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus	199–184/183
11	P. Cornelius Lentulus (cos 162)	P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio	Ap. Claudius Pulcher	L. Valerius Flaccus	184/183–180
12	M. Aemilius Scaurus	Ap. Claudius Pulcher	L. Cornelius Lentulus Lupus	M. Aemilius Lepidus	179–153/152
13	L. Valerius Flaccus	P. Cornelius Lentulus (cos 162)	P. Cornelius Lentulus (cos 162)	P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum	c.147–c.141
14	Mam. Aemilius Lepidus Livianus	L. Cornelius Lentulus Lupus	M. Aemilius Scaurus	Ap. Claudius Pulcher	c.136–before 130
15		M. Aemilius Scaurus	L. Valerius Flaccus	L. Cornelius Lentulus Lupus	130?–before 125
16		L. Valerius Flaccus		P. Cornelius Lentulus (cos 162)	c.125–before 115
17		Quintus Lutatius Catulus		M. Aemilius Scaurus	115–c.89
18		Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus		L. Valerius Flaccus	by 86–70s
19		M. Tullius Cicero		M. Tullius Cicero	after 21 April – 7 Dec. 43

References

• Badian, Ernst (2012). "princeps senatus". In Hornblower, Simon; et al. (eds.). The Oxford classical dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5331. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8. OCLC 959667246.
• Broughton, Thomas Robert Shannon (1952). The magistrates of the Roman republic. Vol. 2. New York: American Philological Association.
• Lintott, Andrew (2009) [First published 1999]. The constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-815068-7. OCLC 39706770.
• Mommsen, Theodor (1864a). Römische Forschungen. Vol. 1.
• Mommsen, Theodor (1864b). "Über den princeps senatus". Rheinisches Museum für Philologie. 19: 455–457.
• Rafferty, David (2011). "Princeps senatus". Melbourne Historical Journal. 39 (2): 1–22. ISSN 0076-6232.
• Ryan, Francis X (1998). Rank and Participation in the Republican Senate.
• Suolahti, Jaakko (1972). "Princeps senatus". Arctos. 7: 207–218.
• Willems, Pierre Gaspard Hubert (1878). Le Sénat de la République romaine. Vol. 1.

External links

• The Roman Law Library by Professor Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev.