I was reading about how Augustus surrounded himself with people who were favourable for him in the senate and it got me thinking. Was there a typical pathway to becoming a senator in the Roman Empire? If there was, did it change to suit the needs of emperors?
To become a senator during Late Republican and early Imperial Rome, you needed to both have a wealth of at least 1,000,000 sesterces (probably approximately $3,500,000), and have been elected Quaestor (during the Late Republican period this would have meant being elected to the office by the Comitia Tributa (an assembly open to every adult male citizen), though Augustus transferred all powers of election to the Senate at the outset of his reign).