How Corrupt was the Roman Senate Really?

Check out Squarespace: http://squarespace.com/BRAINFOOD for 10% off on your first purchase of a website/domain using the code BRAINFOOD One of the lasting legacies of Rome in modern society is the concept of a Senate, though it wasn’t really what we think of as a Senate today. In many countries today, you can find a similar governing body of elected or appointed representatives. If you dive a little deeper, you can see different countries have very different ideas of what a senate is. Usually in a bicameral legislature, that is when a country has more than one legislative body, the Senate acts as the higher assembly. This role can be official and the members are elected, such as the American Senate. In other countries it is symbolic and made up of appointees, such as the Canadian Senate - not to be confused with the Ottawa Senators, who are a bad hockey team. However, the Roman Senate was very different from either the American, Canadian, or quite possibly any modern legislative body calling itself a Senate.