In decreeing a supplication to any general, the opinion of the Senators was always asked. Hence Cicero blames Antony for omitting this in the case of Lepidus. Before the vote was put, and while the debate was going on, the members used to take their seats near that person whose opinion they approved, and the opinion of him who was joined by the greatest number was called "_Sententia maxime frequens_." When affairs requiring secrecy were discussed, the clerks and other attendants were not admitted: but what passed, was written out by some of the Senators, and the decree was called tacitum. Public registers were kept of what was done in the Senate, in the assemblies of the people, and courts of justice; also of births and funerals, of marriages and divorces, &c. which served as a fund of information for historians. In writing a decree, the time and place were put first; then, the names of those who were present at the engrossing of it; after that, the motion with the name of the magistrate who proposed it; to all which was subjoined what the Senate decreed. The decrees were kept in the public treasury with the laws and other writings, pertaining to the republic. Anciently they were kept in the temple of Ceres. The place where the public records were kept was called "_Tabularium_." The decrees of the Senate concerning the honors conferred on Cæsar were inscribed in golden letters, on columns of silver. When not carried to the treasury, they were reckoned invalid. Hence it was ordained under Tiberius, that the decrees of the Senate, especially concerning the capital punishment of any one, should not be carried there before the tenth day, that the emperor, if absent from the city, might have an opportunity of considering them, and if he thought proper of mitigating them. Decrees of the Senate were rarely reversed. While a question was under debate, every one was at freedom to express his dissent; but when once determined, it was looked upon as the common concern of each member to support the opinion of the majority. The power of the Senate was different at different times. Under the regal government, the Senate deliberated upon such affairs as the king proposed to them, and the kings were said to act according to their counsel as the consuls did afterwards according to their decrees.