During the 2nd Punic War, there "was a great increase of something the Senate already possessed--viz. authority, auctoritas, which was a mixture of prestige and initiative."
"It may be significant that this very word auctoritas is a technical term in the practice of the Senate. It was possible for the Senate to be prevented from converting its opinion into a decision by the intervention--the intercessio--of a tribune. But this intervention was only permitted after the debate and the expression of opinion had been generalized in a vote. This vote was preserved and placed on record, and the word used of it was auctoritas, which...contained the idea of initiative, and what the Senate thought was therefore not thought in vain....Such was the auctoritas of the Senate, something that did not rest upon statute but on the cumulative influence of a number of families that had provided the highest magistrates by the choice of the Roman People, and which between them constituted those called nobiles."
The above quotes are from F. E. Adcock's Roman Political Ideas and
Practice, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1959, pages 39 and
47.
Game Rules and PBEM Procedures Game Auctoritas is a standard, non-extended, Early Republic Scenario
Game Turn 1 History
Game Turn 2 History
Game Turn 3 History
Game Turn 4 History
Game Turn 5 History
Game Turn 6 History
Game Turn 7 History
Lou's Republic
of Rome Page Joan's
Republic of Rome Page Last updated: 13 August
2001
Contact the GM, Lou: zyxjerkich@apk.net, but eliminate the zyx.