One of the ways he paid for his mass entertainments was to tax the senatorial order , and on many inscriptions , the traditional order of the two nominal powers of the state , the Senate and People ( Senatus Populusque Romanus ) is provocatively reversed ( Populus Senatusque ... ) . One of the ways he paid for his donatives and mass entertainments was to tax the senatorial order , and on many inscriptions , the traditional order of the two nominal powers of the state , the Senate and People ( Senatus Populusque Romanus ) is provocatively reversed ( Populus Senatusque ... ) .