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 chosen by the pair of censors (that is, every 5 years on average) whenever there was a vacancy on the seat during their tenure. The princeps senatus was not a lifetime appointment. However, in practice, the incumbent princeps senatus was always re-appointed by the censors.

The position of princeps senatus was not defined by law (lex), but by tradition (mos), which makes it more difficult to follow its evolution. For a long time, modern historians were influenced by the works of Theodor Mommsen, who thought that the principes senatus could only be patricians of the gentes maiores—the most illustrious patrician families (Cornelia, Valeria, Fabia, Aemilia, Manlia, and Claudia). However, Francis Ryan showed that Mommsen's argument was circular: he first asserted that the princeps must be from a gens maior, and later said the list of gentes maiores can be drawn from the principes—while ancient sources are silent on many principes and do not give the list of the gentes maiores. Ryan has argued instead that the princeps could be a plebeian, firstly because ancient sources never mention Mommsen's patrician requirement, secondly because the principate was established after the end of the Conflit of the Orders, and the plebeians would not have let the patricians establish an office barred to them.

The princeps senatus appeared in the beginning of the third century BC, possibly in 275. It finds its origin in the Lex Ovinia of c.313, which considerably changed the composition of the senate. Before this law, senators were about a hundred and appointed by the consuls among their supporters; membership of the senate therefore changed every year. The Lex Ovinia transferred the power to appoint senators to the censors, who could only remove senators in case of misconduct, thus making them appointed for life. The law also increased their number to 300. These changes led the censors to make an official list of senators, recording their right to seat in the senate. The first censor to make this list was likely Appius Claudius Caecus, who was said to have invented the rhotacism in Latin, perhaps in the process of writing this list, since several Latin names changed in these years. Another reform of the senate followed a few decades later: senators were by now picked among former magistrates. As a result, senators were ordered by the censors in several ranks according to their past magistracies. This ordering by seniority led to the creation of the princeps senatus: the first name on the list of senators, who was always the most senior ex-censor, patrician or plebeian; the censors could not make a choice between candidates. Appius Caecus was almost certainly not the first princeps, because the extensive tradition about him would not have failed to mention this fact. He is also described as an old man speaking in the senate against Pyrrhus c.280. Since he was the most senior former sensor at that date, the first princeps was necessarily appointed after his death. The most probable candidate is therefore Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, chosen by the censors of 275, whose lectio left a mark in ancient sources.

In 209, the censor Publius Sempronius Tuditanus went against the tradition and appointed Fabius Maximus (the "Cunctator") instead of Titus Manlius Torquatus—who was the senior ex-censor. Tuditanus justified his choice by saying that Fabius was the foremost of all the Romans ("princeps Romanae civitatis"). After this date, the princeps was the most important politician of the day, chosen among the ex-consuls, and often one of the seating censors, appointed by the other censor. When the censors could not agree on a candidate, the choice was solved by lot, as in 209. 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. Some notable principes of this period were the famous Scipio Africanus (appointed in 199, 194 and 189) and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who was appointed a record 6 times between 179 and 154 and combined his position with that of pontifex maximus—the Roman chief priesthood.

The status and function of princeps senatus ceased to be relevant after the reforms of Sulla in 82–80. As dictator, Sulla established a strict oligarchic order in order to prevent any man from rising above the rest (for example iteration of the consulship was banned). Several scholars, such as Ernst Badian, thought that Sulla even abolished the office. However, Sulla would probably not have demoted his close ally, the princeps Lucius Valerius Flaccus, who had enabled his appointment as dictator though the lex Valeria. Although the position remained, reflecting the senator who was named first in the roll of the senate issued by the censors, the prerogatives of the office were restricted. In particular, the honour of speaking first on any topic debated in the Senate, a measure of the princeps' political clout, was transferred to the consul designate. 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.

Pierre Willems and Francis Ryan have suggested that Cicero may have been the last princeps of the Republic, appointed after April 43 by his fellow senators. The restoration of this ancient office was part of "diehard republicans'" propaganda against Mark Antony, whom Cicero had violently attacked in his Philippicae.

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 AD 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.

List of principes senatus

	Mommsen (1864)	Willems (1878)	Suolahti (1972)	Ryan (1998)	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. Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 3-5150-7093-1.
• 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.