whole people, retaining to the end its aristocratic character. The senators wore on their tunics a broad purple stripe,--a badge of distinction, like a modern decoration,--and they had the exclusive rights of the orchestra at theatres and amphitheatres. [Footnote: See article in Smith's _Dict. of Ant._, by Dr. Schmitz.] Under the emperors, the Senate was degraded, and was made entirely subservient to their will, and a mouth-piece; still it survived all the changes of the constitution, and was always a dignified and privileged body. It combined, in its glory, more functions than the English Parliament; it was convoked by the curule magistrates, and finally by the tribunes. The most ancient place of assembly was the Curia Hostilia, though subsequently many temples were used. The majority of votes decided a question, and the order in which senators spoke and voted was determined by their rank, in the following order: president of the Senate, consuls, censors, praetors, aediles, tribunes, quaestors. Their decisions, called _Senatus Consulta_, were laws--_leges_--and were entrusted to the care of aediles and tribunes. [Footnote: Nieb. _Roman Hist._, viii. p. 264.] [Sidenote: The Senate composed of patricians and plebeians.] [Sidenote: The Senate hold the great offices of state.] Such was the Roman Senate--an assembly of nobles, whether patrician or plebeian. The descendants of all who had filled curule magistracies were _nobiles_, and had the privilege of placing in the atrium of the house the images and titles of their ancestors--an heraldic distinction in substance. And as the patricians carried back their pedigree to the remotest historical period, there was great pride of blood. Few plebeians could boast of a remote and illustrious ancestry, and every plebeian who obtained a curule office, was the founder of his family's nobility, like Cicero--a _novus homo_. This nobility contrived to keep possession of all the great offices, and it was difficult for a new man to get access to their ranks. The distinction of Patrician and Plebeian was secondary, after the _Gracchi_ to that of _Nobilitas_, yet it was rare to find a patrician gens the families of which had not enjoyed the highest honors many times over. Thus the aristocracy was composed of the families of those who had held the highest offices of the state; but as these offices were controlled by the Senate and enjoyed by the patricians chiefly, it was difficult to determine whether nobility was the result of patrician blood, or the possession of great offices. A man could scarcely be a patrician who had not held a great office; nor could he often hold a great office unless he were a patrician. The great offices were held in succession by the members of the Senate. The two consuls, the ten tribunes, the eight praetors in the time of Sulla--the twenty quaestors, together with the governors of provinces, and the generals who were selected from the