I vaguely recall from my highschool days that originally a senator had
to be of the age of 70 when the average age of roman citizens was
perhaps 50 or thereabouts.  The root "Sen" points to an age
qualification which we still use in words such as "senior" , seniority
and such.  The logic for an age qualification was that with one foot
in the grave, policy makers were no longer motivated as much to build
wealth or power bases and also were wiser than younger men.

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 05 Dec 2004 02:59 PST

Interesting recollection!

Are you asking for sources to bolster your contention that Roman
senators, at some point at least, had to be age 70?

Or are you simply asking for general information about Roman
Senatorial age qualification?  And, as such, would an answer citing
age requirements substantially below 70 be acceptable to you?

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Clarification of Question by cereb-ga on 05 Dec 2004 08:26 PST

Thank you, Juggler, for the quick response.
I believe that "councils of elders" existed prior to the formation of
the form of Governance the Romans engineered.  They existed in various
parts of the world and even today we use that phrase.  So it is
possible that the title "Senator" merely reflected prior practice. 
Here I am basically interested in whether the Romans, at the time they
crafted their form of governance, actually had a formal rule, and if
not, if early on the age of Senators was markably higher than lateron,
reflecting a variance, perhaps even a deterioration, in governance. 
It is just that I recall hearing the explanation I cited being offered
when I was learning Latin as a teen in Germany.  Hope this helps, and
again, thank you for pursuing this.

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Clarification of Question by cereb-ga on 05 Dec 2004 08:28 PST

As an afterthought, yes - if ANY age qualification existed for Roman
Senators, that would be of interest.

Hello.

The Roman Senate was indeed a council of elders (or "old men").  

During both the Roman Republic (509 BC - 27 BC) and the Roman Empire
(27 BC - 476 AD), there did exist a minimum "senatorial age" (called
"aetas senatoria").

According to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, during
period of the Roman Republic, the minimum age for Senators was 32.

The same source indicates that during the period of the Roman Empire,
the minimum age for Senators was fixed at 25.

Smith's Dictionary also states that it is unknown whether a fixed
minimum age existed in the Senate's earliest days during Rome's kingly
period (753 BC - 509 BC).


See:

"In all the republics of antiquity the government was divided between
a senate and a popular assembly; and in cases where a king stood at
the head of affairs, as at Sparta, the king had little more than the
executive. A senate in the early times was always regarded as an
assembly of elders, which is in fact the meaning of the Roman senatus
as of the Spartan gerousi/a, and its members were elected from among
the nobles of the nation."
source:
William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John
Murray, London, 1875.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Senatus.html


"Respecting the age at which a person might be elected into the senate
during the kingly period, we know no more than what is indicated by
the name senator itself, that is, that they were persons of advanced
age (cf. Becker, Röm. Alterth. vol. ii. pt. ii p385, &c.)."
From:
William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John
Murray, London, 1875.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Senatus.html


"As regards the age at which a person might become a senator, we have
no express statement for the time of the republic, although it appears
to have been fixed by some custom or law, as the aetas senatoria is
frequently mentioned, especially during the latter period of the
republic. But we may by induction discover the probable age. We know
that according to the lex annalis of the tribune Villius, the age
fixed for the quaestorship was 31 (Orelli, Onom. Tull. vol. iii p133).
Now as it might happen that a quaestor was made a senator immediately
after the expiration of his office, we may presume that the earliest
age at which a man could become a senator was 32. Augustus at last
fixed the senatorial age at 25 (Dion Cass. lii.20), which appears to
have remained unaltered throughout the time of the empire."
From:
William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John
Murray, London, 1875.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Senatus.html

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search strategy:
roman "senatorial age" 

I hope this helps.

Excellent. Thank you.  And a small gratuity - although it may deserve more.

Thank you for the tip.
-juggler