Senatus consultum

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This inscription on bronze tablet records the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, which prohibited the celebration of Bacchanalia, rites in honor of the god Bacchus, throughout Italy, 186 BCE. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Decree of the senate. A senatus consultum was an official statement and advice of the Roman senate to the executive magistrates. Though it was officially an "advice" from the senate to a magistrate, and technically these decrees did not have to be obeyed, in practice, they usually were. If a senatus consultum conflicted with a law that has been passed by the comitia, the law overrided the senatus consultum, because the senatus consultum had its authority based in precedent, and not in law. A senatus consultum, however, could serve to interpret a law.

Examples for Roman senatus consulta