In this thread a redditor mentioned that Romans passed laws sober on the first day, and then got drunk and passed them again the second day. The idea was that being drunk would help bait out bad ideas / get the truth out of people who might be holding back on objections.
Is this true?
If so:
Do we know when the tradition started or ended?
Was it successful?
Have any other societies used alcohol in a similar manner?
Link to comment: http://www.reddit.com/r/depression/comments/39apyh/i_went_to_a_party_last_night/cs2ffq4
Another user has already correctly answered the question, but I think it's worth noting that the senate didn't vote on laws. Ever. The senate existed as an advisory body, offering its counsel to the magistrates of that year, who might follow or ignore their advice, although ignoring the advice of the senate would have political repercussions later on, as magistrates above the rank of quaestor would enter back into the senate at the end of their terms and we're no longer protected by the immunity to prosecution that their magistracies gave them. Laws were proposed by the magistrates and passed by the citizen assemblies, never by the senate. The senate only had a handful of official legal powers--they presided over the election of military tribunes (and therefore raising an army needed senatorial approval) and appointed extraordinary magistrates, but none of their powers involved actually passing legislation
/u/Kbg4213711 is misremembering a comment the ancient Greek historian Herodotus made about the Persians, not the Romans, in Book I of his History. I'm not aware of whether it was accurate; Herodotus was known to repeat exaggerated tales, but there's often (though not always) a grain of truth behind what he says:
It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk; and then on the morrow, when they are sober, the decision to which they came the night before is put before them by the master of the house in which it was made; and if it is then approved of, they act on it; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first deliberation, but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine.