But
let the actual appointment of ambassadors be the duty of the supreme
council. For it is of the greatest consequence to see that no patrician
be called to any office in the dominion but by the supreme council
itself, lest the patricians themselves should try to curry favour with
the senate. Secondly, all matters are to be referred to the supreme
council, which in any way alter the existing state of things, as the
deciding on peace and war. Wherefore, that the senate's decrees
concerning peace and war may be valid, they must be confirmed by the
supreme council. And therefore I should say, that it belonged to the
supreme council only, not to the senate, to impose new taxes.
30. In determining the number of senators these points are to be taken
into consideration: first, that all the patricians should have an equal
hope of gaining senatorial rank; secondly, that notwithstanding the same
senators, whose time (for which they were elected) is elapsed, may be
continued after a short interval, that so the dominion may always be
governed by skilled and experienced men; and lastly, that among the
senators many may be found illustrious for wisdom and virtue. But to
secure all these conditions, there can be no other means devised, than
that it should be by law appointed, that no one who has not reached his
fiftieth year, be received into the number of senators, and that four
hundred, that is about a twelfth part of the patricians, be appointed
for a year, and that two years after that year has elapsed, the same be
capable of re-appointment.
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