The Senate was thus made omnipotent and irresponsible. It had the
appointment of all the governors of the provinces. It was surrounded by
its own body-guard. It had the administration completely in hand. The
members could be tried only by their peers, and were themselves judges of
every other order. No legal force was left anywhere to interfere with what
it might please them to command. A senator was not necessarily a
patrician, nor a patrician a senator. The Senate was,[6] or was to be as
time wore on, a body composed of men of any order who had secured the
suffrages of the people. But as the value of the prize became so vast, the
way to the possession of it was open practically to those only who had
wealth or interest. The elections came to be worked by organized
committees, and except in extraordinary circumstances no candidate could
expect success who had not the Senate's support, or who had not bought the
services of the managers, at a cost within the reach only of the reckless
spendthrift or the speculating millionaire.
What human foresight could do to prevent democracy from regaining the
ascendency, Sylla had thus accomplished. He had destroyed the opposition;
he had reorganized the constitution on the most strictly conservative
lines. He had built the fortress, as he said; it was now the Senate's part
to provide a garrison; and here it was, as Caesar said afterward, that
Sylla had made his great mistake.
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