Senate (i.e. “an assembly of elders”), a name first bestowed by the Romans on their supreme legislative and administrative assembly; its formation is traditionally ascribed to Romulus; its powers, at their greatest during the Republic, gradually diminished under the Emperors; in modern times is used to designate the “Upper House” in the legislature of various countries, e. g. France and the United States of America; is also the title of the governing body in many universities.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Sénancour, Étienne Pivert de * Seneca, Annæus