What is "council of ancients"

Ancient \An"cient\, n.

1. pl. Those who lived in former ages, as opposed to the moderns.

2. An aged man; a patriarch. Hence: A governor; a ruler; a person of influence.

   The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof.
   --Isa. iii. 14.

3. A senior; an elder; a predecessor. [Obs.]

   Junius and Andronicus . . . in Christianity . . . were his ancients.
   --Hooker.

4. pl. (Eng. Law) One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.

   Council of Ancients (French Hist.), one of the two assemblies composing the legislative bodies in 179

5. 
   --Brande.

The Council of Ancients or Council of Elders was the upper house of the Directory (French: Directoire), the legislature of France from 22 August 1795 until 9 November 1799, roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the French Revolution.

The Council of Ancients was the senior of the two halves of the republican legislative system. The Ancients were 250 members who could accept or reject laws put forward by the lower house of the Directory, the Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents). Each member had to be at least forty years of age, and a third of them would be replaced annually. They had no power to draft laws, but any laws that they rejected could not be reintroduced for at least a year.

Besides functioning as a legislative body, the Council of Ancients selected the five Directors, who jointly held executive power, from a list provided by the Five Hundred.