This study focuses on one aspect of the republican senate the relationship between rank and participation in debate. The senate is usually pictured as a place in which a relatively small number of high-ranking senators who spoke exercised influence over a relatively large number of low-ranking senators who voted. The author argues that these silent senators are a figment of the imagination of nineteenth-century historians, that the most humble senator regularly received a chance to speak. Once the old view of the nature of debate in the senate is discarded as mistaken, it becomes possible to discuss privileged positions in debate and the question of influence. The evidence demonstrates that high rank was neither necessary for participation nor sufficient for influence. "... Ryan hat eine nutzliche, sehr stoffreiche und daruber hinaus gut lesbare Studie vorgelegt, die bei einer Beschaftigung mit dem republikanischen Senat kunftig zweifelsohne zu berucksichtigen sein wird und worauf weiterfuhrende Studien aufbauen konnen." Historische Zeitschrift "...exzellente Analysen, sehr kluge Fragen, uberraschende Beobachtungen und bundige Schlussfolgerungen [...] R. hat die Forschung um einen grossen Schritt voran gebracht." Gnomon