senatus consultum

senatus consultum (si-nay-t[schwa]s k[schwa]n-s[schwa]l-t[schwa]m). [Latin] Roman law. In the Republic, a resolution of the Roman Senate, which did not have the force of law (though usu. followed). • In the first century A.D., these resolutions replaced the legislation of the comitia, but by the end of the second century, they were merely the Senate’s official expression of the imperial will. The senate often adopted the text of a speech (oratio) by the emperor. — Abbr. S.C. — Sometimes written senatusconsultum.

— Also termed senatus consult. Pl. senatus consulta.

“Senatus consulta. — In the regal and republican periods the Senate enjoyed no legislative power. It was an advisory body, nominated by the King, and at first purely patrician. Later it … included patricians and plebeians … its chief duty still being to tender advice to the magistrates …. The theory still was, till the time of Hadrian, that senatus consulta were directions to the magistrates, who were now in fact, if not in name, bound to give effect to them, till by a process of gradual usurpation senatus consulta came to be direct legislation.” R.W. Leage, Roman Private Law 12–13 (C.H. Ziegler ed., 2d ed. 1930).

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