f the order.

Immediately to the right of the altar, were placed the curule chairs, rich
with carved ivory and crimson cushions, of the two consuls; and behind
them, erect, with their shouldered axes, stood the stout lictors.

Cicero, as the first chosen of the consuls, sat next the statue of the
God; calm in his outward mien, as the severe and placid features of the
marble deity, although within him the soul labored mightily, big with the
fate of Rome. Next him Antonius, a stout, bold, sensual-looking soldier,
filled his place--worthily, indeed, so far as stature, mien, and bearing
were concerned; but with a singular expression in his eye, which seemed to
indicate embarrassment, perhaps apprehension.

After these, the presiding officers of the Republic, were present, each
according to his rank, the conscript fathers--first, the Prince of the
Senate, and then the Consulars, Censorians, and Praetorians, down to those
who had filled the lowest office of the state, that of Quaestor, which gave
its occupant, after his term of occupancy expired, admission to the grand
representative assembly of the commonwealth.

For much as there has been written on all sides of this subject, there now
remains no doubt that, from the earliest to the latest age of Rome, the
Senate was strictly, although an aristocratical, still an elective
representative assembly.

The Censors, themselves, elected by the Patricians out of their own order,
in the assembly of the Curiae, had the appointment of the Senators; but
from those only who had filled one of the magistracies, all of which were
conferred by the popular vote of the assembly of the centuries; and all of
which, at this period of the Republic, might be, and sometimes were,
conferred on Plebeians--as in the case of Marius, six times elected Consul
in spite of Patrician opposition.

Such was the constitution of the Senate, purely elective, though like all
other portions of the Roman constitution, under such checks and balances
as were deemed sufficient to ensure it from becoming a democratical
assembly.

And such, in fact, it never did become. For having been at first an
elective body chosen from an hereditary aristocracy, it was at that time,
save in the varying principles of individuals, wholly aristocratic in its
nature. Nor, after the tenure of the various magistracies, which conferred
eligibility to the Senate, was thrown open to the plebeians, did any great
change follow; since th