And not decadent in the fun way. The eternal city of Rome had a sacred boundary called the pomerium that kings were never allowed to cross. So a king visiting Rome had to content himself with nice lodgings in the suburbs and could never go site-seeing in the Forum Romanum. Which deprived kings the opportunity of addressing the Senate personally, unless certain Senators were willing to come and see them. A king would have to send an agent to represent them to the Roman Senate.
Romans never bend knee to man or god.
SCA kings should not infer that a Roman is demonstrating disrespect by refusing to kneel if we ever attend court. Quite the contrary. To a Roman, such acts of supplication are as insulting to the kneeler as they are to the reciepent. We Romans do not kneel before our deities, we would certainly not suffer to kneel before a mortal man. Nor is this any criticism of those who do kneel in court.