Note 1838 — Chapter X · THE PRINCIPATE
Reading edition
There was no legal principle of the kind. According to Dio Cassius (liii. 17) the monarchical power extended so far ὥστε καὶ ἐντὸς τοῦ πωμηρίου καὶ τοὺς ἰππέας καὶ τοὺς βουλευτὰς θανατοῦ δύνασθαι, and a senator, like Calpurnius Piso in 20 A.D., might be brought before the Emperor (Tac. Ann. iii. 10). But Septimius Severus permitted a senatus consultum to be passed that the Emperor should not be allowed to put a senator to death without the will of the Senate (Dio Cass. lxxiv. 2; Vita Severi 7). The principle had been stated earlier by Hadrian (Vita Hadriani 7 “juravit se nunquam senatorem nisi ex senatus sententia puniturum”).