To become a Senator you would have to first own a large quantity of land, and it was advised thet you should be a wealthy person, since more than once Senators went bankrupt in their job. An appointed senator held the job for life. The Senate itself was a group of 300 men drawn from the higher class in Rome, the Patricians, and governed the Roman Republic until the tome of Ceasar. Teh heads of the Senate were the consuls, who controlled all the politics in the Senate for their one-year reign.