Inventing the Imperial Senate

Abstract

The Senate under Augustus was a strikingly different institution from the one known from Cicero. It became one of the pillars of the regime, allowing Augustus to lay claim to a rhetoric of continuity and legitimacy he could not have achieved in any other way. But there was a fundamental change in the way senators themselves saw their role, and the relationship Rome’s political, economic, and social elite had to senatorhood more broadly. This chapter explores how the Senate itself became largely cooperative rather than competitive, and developed a new corporate personality. This shift fed into many of Augustus’ own goals, but it also represented a rational response by the senators to their new reality.