==Organization== The history of the senate needs to be laid out into sections: ==Early Republic==
==Late Republic==
==Early Empire==
==Middle Empire==
==Late Empire==
==Byzantine== (?) I can't do it justice -- my knowledge is rusty and I'm away from my Roman Senate primary material. But the point is the Senate went from an iron grip on the Republic, to an old boy's club, to a rubber stamp, to an irrelevant body of old men in Rome, to an even less relevant body of old men in Constantinople. :Reid 07:09, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC) When was the Roman Senate revived in the Middle Ages? Wetman 01:37, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC) :"Revived"? Never heard of that. In the Middle Ages the Pope ruled Rome, he wouldn't have wanted any help. :-) Stan 04:10, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC) Colas_de_Rienzi. I know there was some kind of symbolic Roman Senate in the 1300s. I better check... Wetman 04:14, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC) ::What do you mean by "old boy's club?" My Latin teacher refered to it as that. Here's this, from http://www.factmonster.com/: :"Papal authority was challenged in the 12th cent. by the communal movement. A commune was set up (1144–55), led by Arnold of Brescia, but it was subdued by the intervention of Emperor Frederick I. Finally, a republic under papal patronage was established, headed by an elected senator. However, civil strife continued between popular and aristocratic factions and between Guelphs and Ghibellines. The commune made war to subdue neighboring cities, for it pretended to rule over the Papal States, particularly the duchy of Rome, which included Latium and parts of Tuscany. Innocent III controlled the government of the city, but it regained its autonomy after the accession of Emperor Frederick II. Later in the 13th cent. foreign senators began to be chosen; among them were Brancaleone degli Andalò (1252–58) and Charles I of Naples." This needs looking into... Wetman 04:26, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC) This article needs breaking up into subsections, at the moment it's one long chunk of prose and it's badly presented. == Style of dress == Are modern scholars sure that the purple stripe was on the right shoulder and not down the front of the tunic? I thought there was debate over that. Certainly the popular conception is down the front of the tunic.Binabik80 05:44, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC) == Pedarii == In what way were the pedarii "like parliamentary backbenchers"? It's true that neither pedarii nor backbenchers are currently out of magisterial/ministerial office, but the key fact about pedarii is that they had ''never'' held office. And in context, the article seems to be implying that pedarii are similar to backbenchers because they had no speaking rights, which is a bizarre claim to make about backbenchers. Furthermore, the primary purpose of a backbencher is to vote the way his party wants him to vote, while of course the pedarius, like everyone else in the political party-less Roman Senate, voted his conscience. If no one responds in two days I'll remove the reference.Binabik80 05:50, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Having seen no objections, I've deleted the clause.Binabik80 02:39, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)