On the Final Meeting of the Roman Senate

 On The Final Meeting of the Roman Senate


Nobody knows when the Roman Senate had their final meeting. The Roman Senate was once the most powerful governing body in the world, or at least it was according to the Romans. Then Rome became an Empire. The Senate didn't go away when that happened, but its power diminished. It continued to decline as the power of the Emperor grew. The Empire fell to the Goths, and the Senate, still in existence, continued to dwindle. However, even then it didn't go away entirely. By the early Middle Ages, the once mighty Senate of Rome, the very one that once dominated the known world, was little more than a social club.

That's right, the organization that was a direct continuation from the days of the republic continued to meet and have opinions, but those opinions were meaningless when it came to setting policy. The ruling Emperor didn't even live in Rome anymore, and territory in Italy was being passed around to various states like the Lombards, Franks, and Byzantines. The last recorded reference to the existence of the Senate was in the year 603 when the Senate greeted the visiting Emperor. They were disbanded in 628 by the Pope. In 630, the senate house was converted to a church. By this era the meetings weren't even recorded, so we don't know when the institution actually ended. It just faded away. Roman aristocracy continued to call themselves Senator for hundreds of years after as a noble title, but the designation was meaningless.

The Roman Senate was hardly a bastion of democracy. Yet it showed that power in a large country could, at least for a time, be divided among people and not rest in the hands of a single individual. That ended with the rise of the Empire, yet the Senate did not simply disappear. It went slowly. Other than a few major events, one day looked like the previous to anyone living through it.

In a lot of popular media warning about authoritarian regimes, it often shows all of the power being held by the evil king or dictator. Of note, Star Wars actually got this right in their depiction of the fall of the Galactic Republic. It's not as flashy as blowing up the Deathstar, but there's a line in the original movie about the Senate being finally dissolved, and the movie takes place about two decades after the Emperor came to power in the prequel movies.

Powerful institutions don't simply get overthrown unless a nation is conquered from outside. If they give up their power, they fade away. This makes sense for any rising authoritarian, as moving too quickly would cause enough dissatisfaction to create a backlash. People don't like systemic change. Even change for the better is met with skepticism and resistance by much of the populace. So the Senate remains and its title continues to be respected, but the meaning of the Senate diminishes. The Roman Senate represented the nation of Rome, then the city of Rome, then nothing.

We're living through an era where the power of the US legislative branch has been diminishing for a while. Politicians discovered that punting hard decisions to the Executive branch meant not having to face any backlash for those decisions. They've given up their own power and in doing so more and more power is moving away from democratic institutions. The court system is taking more power for itself too, which has nearly no checks left on it, but that's nothing compared to the power being stolen by the current ruling regime. Simply refusing to enforce laws that hurt their power is the start of a dictatorship.

The question is, can the legislative branch take back its power and begin representing the people again? The Roman Senate faded to nothing. Can we learn from that example, or is it a sign of what's to come?


As with many of my posts on history, this piece was inspired by yet another Overly Sarcastic Productions video, specifically on the history of Rome. The end of the Senate is touched on at about the 2 hours 8 minutes mark: The Complete History of Rome, Summarized - YouTube

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