There have been a lot of questions and general confusion about the gravitas system recently, now that's it's starting to matter in votes. If you have any questions, read this first, then ask away.

From the rules
Political Support, Voting, and Elections Support and "Invisible" Senators
The Senate is not just made up of players. Non-player ("invisible") senators will not play major roles in the economy and they will not hold offices.

Gravitas and Support
A character's gravitas will be determined by adding their plebeian and patrician points.

In addition to gaining points, gravitas can be increased by:
  • Holding office
  • Holding priesthoods
  • Victory in battle
  • Honors granted by the Senate

Individual gravitas divided by the total gravitas of all players represents the percentage of the Senate which (generally) supports the player. This is the player's base support.

Bills and Voting
When a bill is proposed in the senate, it may be debated until the consuls (or consul and censor, if one consul is at war) agree to put it to a vote.

Votes are determined by adding up the base support percentages for each player voting on the issue. If someone abstains, their supporters are distributed to the others proportionally.

Then, per-issue modifiers will be given to the "supporter" and "opposition" factions based on various factors:
  • Current conditions (e.g. wars, famines, international relations, etc)
  • Speeches and debates
  • Parties held to influence senators (must spend resources such as wine and olive oil, and perhaps money to hire entertainers)
  • Bribery - players must contact the moderators if they wish to bribe senators

Elections and Campaigning
The same rules apply as for bills.

In addition to the above modifiers, election-specific modifiers will be given to a candidate based on their performance in previous offices, and their adherence to the cursus honorum. Players may make promises to the plebs and patricians to improve their chances in the election, but will lose influence (points) with these groups if they fail to deliver.

The Cursus Honorum
Senators were expected to attain various magistracies in a specific order, and each magistracy has a set minimum age. A senator elected to a position at the minimum age is said to have been elected "in his year"; this is considered a great accomplishment, especially in the higher offices. Senators are generally expected to retire soon after the age of 60, or ten years after completing a term as censor.



Dictators have an in-office bonus of +6, but there is no ex-dictator bonus.

Note that gravitas bonuses in the same column do not stack. For example: a censor who has completed the cursus has +4 for being censor and +2 for being ex-consul (but not +1 for ex-praetor). On completing his term, he becomes a normal senator with +3 gravitas for being ex-censor.


I keep track of gravitas here, in the Capitoline Hill subforum. Everything auto-updates every few minutes thanks to Google docs. In the interest of transparency, there's a link to the spreadsheet at the bottom, so you can see where all the numbers come from.

Note that it is everyone's responsibility to keep track of points and bonuses in their home threads - that way, if I screw up, it'll be easy to correct.