The council of elders, indeed, had no title to interfere with the official functions of the king.
The latter doubtless, in the event of his being unable personally to lead the army or to decide a legal dispute, took his deputies at all times from the senate; for which reason subsequently the highest posts of command were regularly bestowed on senators alone, and senators were likewise employed by preference as jurymen.

But the senate, in its collective capacity, was never consulted in the leading of the army or in the administration of justice; and therefore there was no right of military command and no jurisdiction vested in the senate of the later Rome.

On the other hand the council of elders was held as called to the guardianship of the existing constitution against encroachments by the king and the burgesses.

On the senate devolved the duty of examining every resolution adopted by the burgesses at the suggestion of the king, and of refusing to confirm it if it seemed to violate existing rights; or, which was the same thing, in all cases where a resolution of the community was constitutionally requisite--as on every alteration of the constitution, on the reception of new burgesses, on the declaration of an aggressive war--the council of elders had a right of veto.

This may not indeed be regarded in the light of legislation pertaining jointly to the burgesses and the senate, somewhat in the same way as to the two chambers in the constitutional state of the present day; the senate was not so much law-maker as law-guardian, and could only cancel a decree when the community seemed to have exceeded its competence--to have violated by its decree existing obligations towards the gods or towards foreign states or organic institutions of the community.