Senatus consultum ultimum

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Senatus consultum ultimum

Senatus consultum ultimum ("Final decree of the Senate" or Final Act), more properly senatus consultum de re publica defendenda ("Decree of the Senate on defending the Republic") is the modern term (based on Caesar's

Julius Caesar

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government....
during the late Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
passed in times of emergency. The form was usually consules darent operam ne quid detrimenti res publica caperet or videant consules ne res publica detrimenti capiat ("let the consuls see to it that the state suffer no harm").

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Julius Caesar

Roman Senate

Roman Republic

Gaius Gracchus

Gaius Sempronius Gracchus was a Ancient Rome politician of the 2nd century BC. He was the younger brother of Tiberius Gracchus and, like him, pursued a popular political agenda that ultimately ended in his death....
in 121 BC, and subsequently at several other points, including during Lepidus'

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (120-77 BC)

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , was a Roman Republic statesman. He was the father of the second triumvirate Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and of the consul of 50 BC Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus....
march on Rome in 77 BC, the Conspiracy of Catiline

Catiline

Lucius Sergius Catilina , known in English language as Catiline, was a Roman Republic politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Roman Senate....
in 63

63 BC

Year 63 BC was a year of the Roman calendar....
, and when Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Rubicon

Rubicon is a 29 km long river in northern Italy.The river flows from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern Emilia-Romagna region between the towns of Rimini and Cesena....
in 49

49 BC

Year 49 BC was a year of the Roman calendar....
. The Senatus consultum ultimum effectively replaced the disused dictatorship

Roman dictator

Dictator was a political office of the Roman Republic. The dictator was above the three branches of government in the constitution of the Roman Republic as no other body or officer could check his power....
, by giving the magistrates semi-dictatorial powers to preserve the State. After the rise of the Principate

Principate

The Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate....
, there was little need for the Senate to issue the decree again.

Constitutional problem with the Senatus consultum ultimum

Implicit controversy, however, lay inherent in the brevity of the decree: it did not enumerate just how far-reaching those powers would be for consuls, and whether they overrode normal protections and liberties citizens enjoyed. This came to a head in 63

63 BC

Year 63 BC was a year of the Roman calendar....
, when Marcus Tullius Cicero had men charged with complicity in the Conspiracy of Catiline, including the former consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, executed without a trial. Cicero argued that, given the extraordinary danger of the crisis, the senatus consultum ultimum afforded him the power in that limited circumstance. Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and others argued that the consultum could not override the basic laws of the Roman state, that it meant merely that the Consuls should do their utmost within the framework of the Roman Constitution to resolve the emergency. While Cicero's actions were popular with the Roman public during the crisis, in 58

58 BC

Year 58 BC was a year of the Roman calendar....
his political enemy Publius Clodius Pulcher

Publius Clodius Pulcher

Publius Clodius Pulcher , was a Roman Republic politician of the Populares cause, who passed several significant laws but was chiefly remembered for his feuds with Titus Annius Milo and Marcus Tullius Cicero and for his introduction of the grain dole....
ordered his exile (through the Leges Clodiae
Leges Clodiae

Leges Clodiae were a series of laws passed by the Plebeian Council of the Roman Republic under the Tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher in 58 BC....
), which was only reversed later with the assistance of Pompey and others. The success of Clodius' plan to exile Cicero was motivated by enmity, not by constitutional concern, and does not settle the question about the legality of the Final Act.

Senatus consultum ultimum

Constitutional problem with the Senatus consultum ultimum

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