<P> The peaceful co-existence of senatorial and barbarian rule continued until the Ostrogothic leader Theodahad began an uprising against Emperor Justinian I and took the senators as hostages . Several senators were executed in 552 as a revenge for the death of the Ostrogothic king Totila . After Rome was recaptured by the Imperial ( Byzantine ) army , the Senate was restored , but the institution ( like classical Rome itself ) had been mortally weakened by the long war between the Byzantines and the Ostrogoths . Many senators had been killed and many of those who had fled to the East chose to remain there thanks to favorable legislation passed by emperor Justinian , who however abolished virtually all senatorial offices in Italy . The importance of the Roman Senate thus declined rapidly . In 578 and again in 580 , the Senate sent envoys to Constantinople who delivered 3000 pounds of gold as a gift to the new emperor Tiberius II Constantinus along with a plea for help against the Langobards who had invaded Italy ten years earlier . Pope Gregory I , in a sermon from 593 ( Senatus deest , or. 18 ) , lamented the almost complete disappearance of the senatorial order and the decline of the prestigious institution . It is not clearly known when the Roman Senate disappeared in the West , but it is known from Gregorian register that the Senate acclaimed new statues of Emperor Phocas and Empress Leontia in 603 . The institution must have vanished by 630 when the Curia was transformed into a church by Pope Honorius I . The Senate did continue to exist in the Eastern Roman Empire 's capital Constantinople , however , having been instituted there during the reign of Constantine I . The Byzantine Senate survived until at least the mid-14th century , before the ancient institution finally vanished from history . </P>
<P> The peaceful co-existence of senatorial and barbarian rule continued until the Ostrogothic leader Theodahad began an uprising against Emperor Justinian I and took the senators as hostages . Several senators were executed in 552 as a revenge for the death of the Ostrogothic king Totila . After Rome was recaptured by the Imperial ( Byzantine ) army , the Senate was restored , but the institution ( like classical Rome itself ) had been mortally weakened by the long war between the Byzantines and the Ostrogoths . Many senators had been killed and many of those who had fled to the East chose to remain there thanks to favorable legislation passed by emperor Justinian , who however abolished virtually all senatorial offices in Italy . The importance of the Roman Senate thus declined rapidly . In 578 and again in 580 , the Senate sent envoys to Constantinople who delivered 3000 pounds of gold as a gift to the new emperor Tiberius II Constantinus along with a plea for help against the Langobards who had invaded Italy ten years earlier . Pope Gregory I , in a sermon from 593 ( Senatus deest , or. 18 ) , lamented the almost complete disappearance of the senatorial order and the decline of the prestigious institution . It is not clearly known when the Roman Senate disappeared in the West , but it is known from Gregorian register that the Senate acclaimed new statues of Emperor Phocas and Empress Leontia in 603 . The institution must have vanished by 630 when the Curia was transformed into a church by Pope Honorius I . The Senate did continue to exist in the Eastern Roman Empire 's capital Constantinople , however , having been instituted there during the reign of Constantine I . The Byzantine Senate survived until at least the mid-14th century , before the ancient institution finally vanished from history . </P>
who took power by disobeying the roman senate
who took power by disobeying the roman senate
Emperor Justinian I
Emperor Justinian I