Besides all this, without mentioning the army, the Emperor has every senator personally within his grasp. He can strike any member from the _album_ (Senate List) by use of his irresponsible Censorial Power. Through that same power he can appoint any favorite to the order by his mere fiat. In the elections held within the Senate, he can control the choice for any office by announcing that he favors the aspirations of such and such a friend; the “Candidates of Cæsar” are always elected. In the debates it is a bold senator who dares to face the unpopularity of opposing the Emperor’s suggestions;[175] and once let the monarch indicate the slightest wish, a whole pack of servile favor-seekers will instantly champion the proposition with fervent loyalty. Finally by his “tribunician authority” the Emperor can veto any senatorial proposal which he dislikes. The power of the “venerable Senate” seems, therefore, to have vanished in thin air. =285. Amount of Power Left to the Senate.=--This last is not quite true, however. The Cæsars do not, as yet, represent an unvarnished despotism; they need a cover for their autocracy,[176] and they have to leave to the Senate a certain show of power. No new Emperor’s throne furthermore is secure against pretenders until, after the army has proclaimed him, the Senate has confirmed him, and no Emperor likes to feel that his sole refuge is with the irresponsible swordsmen. Besides all this, the moral prestige of the Senate is still so great that even a Nero or a Domitian hesitates to flout that famous body too openly. Finally, be it said, the task of governing the enormous Empire is a tremendous burden. A reasonable monarch is glad enough to throw upon the Senate a great many problems over which the “Fathers” can exhaust their eloquence and which they probably can settle quite as wisely as he. If they fail and the case is then dutifully referred back to “Cæsar,” his own importance becomes all the greater. If they succeed, he gains a reputation for moderation and liberality. The senators, on their part, have long since ceased to dream of restoring the old Republic. Since the accession of Nerva, 96 A.D., an era of good feeling and equilibrium on the whole has existed. The Senate therefore still vaunts itself as a coördinate branch of the Roman government. =286. Organization and Procedure of the Senate.=--The Senate of the Empire exists in form and procedure very like its predecessor under the Republic. Its debates are the talk of the capital and are duly reported in the Acta Diurna; and at present, with Hadrian out of the city, its supreme presiding officers, the two consuls, affect to be the most powerful personages in Rome, although some of the great permanent ministers on the Palatine, and especially the Prætorian Præfect, have firm doubts on the subject.