This one took a while, but was aided by the fact that the movie channel reprised the first episode of Rome last night and I happened to catch this bit while surfing. One of my questions about the senate scene revolved around some guys banging sticks at the entrance. I just figured out that they must be lictors and what they're banging are the fasces without any axes in them. Nice detail: they only bang the bundle of rods when Pompey and his supporters are being criticized (especially by Cato).