New scholarship on the political and religious culture of the Romans has led to a deeper appreciation of the resilience and creativity of the Roman Senate as an institution that served a changing society for over 1,500 years. Remarkably, Roman senators maintained the Senate as the focus of their lives, even as they confronted military, political, social, and ecological crises. In truth, the Senate was a locus of Roman resilience, evolving to allow senators to use their resources to preserve the state even as they constantly altered the institution.

This international conference will bring together scholars from Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States to analyze and debate the forces, peoples, and ideas that enabled Rome’s senators to use the Senate as a body that directed Rome’s political, social, and religious evolution while channeling resources and energies that enabled Rome to respond to crises.

Moving chronologically from the Republic to the early empire, and then to late antiquity and post-Roman Europe, and finally to the early modern period, a gathering of classicists, historians, legal scholars, and social scientists will debate the mechanisms and explanations for the Senate’s unique role in making Rome the ancient world’s most long-lasting and resilient society. These speakers will also consider how the memory of Rome’s senatorial successes inspired later, non-Roman adaptations of the Senate in places as diverse as eighteenth-century America and medieval Rome.

The Senate: From Antiquity to Modern Times was organized by Michele Renee Salzman (1987 Fellow, 2008 Resident) from the University of California, Riverside, and Edward Watts of the University of California, San Diego, in collaboration with the American Academy in Rome and Parco archeologico del Colosseo.

The event will be held in English.

The daily schedule is:

Tuesday, October 22

Curia Iulia, Roman Forum
Entrance: Largo della Salara Vecchia (on Via dei Fori Imperiali)
2:30–7:00pm

Introduction
Michele Renee Salzman, University of California, Riverside

Welcome
Alfonsina Russo, Director, Parco archeologico del Colosseo
Peter N. Miller, President and CEO, American Academy in Rome

Session I
2:30pm
Presider: Michele Renee Salzman, University of California, Riverside

Francesca Boldrighini, Parco archeologico del Colosseo
From the Curia Iulia to the Church of St. Hadrian and Back: a brief Historical Summary

Eric Robinson, Indiana University
The Roman Senate and Greek Constitutional Forms: Oligarchic, Democratic, or Something Else?

Edward Watts, University of California, San Diego
How Appius Claudius Tried to Rig the Senate

Keynote
5:45pm
Introduction: Ed Watts

Gregory Koger, Director, George P. Hanley Democracy Center, University of Miami
The US Senate in Historical Perspective

Reception
7:00pm