conciled with the gods.

The censors are the masters of the registration and they rank each as
they please; they may degrade a senator by striking him from the
senate-list, a knight by not registering him among the knights, and a
citizen by not placing his name on the registers of the tribes. It is
for them an easy means of punishing those whom they regard at fault
and of reaching those whom the law does not condemn. They have been
known to degrade citizens for poor tillage of the soil and for having
too costly an equipage, a senator because he possessed ten pounds of
silver, another for having repudiated his wife. It is this overweening
power that the Romans call the supervision of morals. It makes the
censors the masters of the city.

=The Senate.=--The Senate is composed of about 300 persons appointed
by the censor. But the censor does not appoint at random; he chooses
only rich citizens respected and of high family, the majority of them
former magistrates. Almost always he appoints those who are already
members of the Senate, so that ordinarily one remains a senator for
life. The Senate is an assembly of the principal men of Rome, hence
its authority. As soon as business is presented, one of the
magistrates convokes the senators in a temple, lays the question
before them, and then asks "what they think concerning this matter."
The senators reply one by one, following the order of dignity. This is
what they call "consulting the Senate," and the judgment of the
majority is a senatus consultum (decree of the Senate). This
conclusion is only advisory as the Senate has no power to make laws;
but Rome obeys this advice as if it were a law. The people have
confidence in the senators, knowing that they have more experience
than themselves; the magistrates do not dare to resist an assembly
composed of nobles who are their peers. And so the Senate regulates
all public business: it declares war and determines the number of the
armies; it receives ambassadors and makes peace; it fixes the revenues
and the expenses. The people ratify these measures and the magistrates
execute them. In 200 B.C. the Senate decided on war with the king of
Macedon, but the people in terror refused to approve it: the Senate
then ordered a magistrate to convoke the comitia anew and to adopt a
more persuasive speech. This time the people voted for the war. In
Rome it was the people who reigned, just as is the case with the king
in England, but it was