The Senate was a weak oligarchy, capable of exercising only minor administrative powers, so that Rome was ruled by its king who was in effect an absolute monarch.

The king had twelve lictors wielding fasces, a curule chair which served as a throne, a purple toga picta, red shoes, and a white diadem worn on the head.

He would appoint a tribunus celerum to serve both as the tribune of Ramnes tribe in Rome and also as the commander of the king's personal bodyguard, the Celeres.

The king's imperium both granted him military powers and qualified him to pronounce legal judgement in all cases as the chief justice of Rome.

Under the kings, the Senate and Curiate Assembly had very little power and authority; they were not independent bodies in that they possessed the right to meet together and discuss questions of state.

While the Curiate Assembly did have the power to pass laws that the king had submitted, the Senate was effectively an honorable council.

[citation needed] If the Senate confirmed the nomination, the interrex would convene the Curiate Assembly and preside as its chairman during the election of the king.

If accepted, the King-elect did not immediately take office: two additional acts had to take place before he was invested with the full regal authority and power.

First, it was necessary to obtain the divine will of the gods respecting his appointment by means of the auspices, since the king would serve as high priest of Rome.

An augur performed this ceremony by conducting the King-elect to the citadel where he was placed on a stone seat as the people waited below.

However, the Roman desire to prevent the kingship from becoming important went so far that, even in the area of religion, the king of sacrifices was formally, in all but protocol, subordinated to the first of the pontiffs, the pontifex maximus (whose position in origin, rather than with the name of priest, is better described as "minister of religion"), to the extent that at some point in history, the Regia or royal palace at the Forum Romanum, originally inhabited by the king of sacrifices,[8] was ceded to the pontifex maximus.

Further, the consuls retained religious roles which were considered so important that the office of interrex was retained for the opening prayer of "electional" assemblies in case both consuls died in office, and the ritual of driving a nail into the temple of Jupiter sometimes even induced a dictatorship.

To qualify for the office, patrician ancestry was necessary; however it was once performed by a member of a family otherwise known as plebeian, the Marcii, earning for himself and his descendants the cognomen Rex.

As has been mentioned, the administrative functions in religion, including at some point the housing in the ancient royal court, were ceded to the supreme pontiff.

The modern concept of a head of state, insofar as the republican times excepting the dictatorships are concerned, can hardly be translated to Roman conceptions[clarification needed], but most other powers—the imperium—were ceded to the consuls (the etymology suggests that these were originally the king's chief counsellors) and to the praetors ("leaders")[10] after the creation of that office (about 367, according to Livy); thereby at least roughly separating the judiciary from the executive.

The republican idea that all promagisterial imperium ends upon entering the city was not observed in the emperors' case.