The Council of Ancients was the senior of the two-halves of the republican legislative system.

The Ancients were 250 members who could accept or reject laws put forward by the lower house of the Directory, the Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents).

They had no authority to draft laws, but any bills that they renounced could not be reintroduced for at least a year.

[1] Besides functioning as a legislative body, the Ancients chose five Directors, who jointly held executive power, from the list of names put forward by the Council of Five Hundred.

[4][5] The name adopted for the body was based on the French translation/adaptation of the term Senate.