The Commune of Rome (Italian: Comune di Roma) was an attempt to establish a government like the old Roman Republic in opposition to the temporal power of the higher nobles and the popes beginning in 1144. The revolutionaries set up a senate on the lines of the ancient one and divided Rome into fourteen regions, each electing four senators for a total of 56 (though one source, often repeated, gives a total of 50). These senators, the first real senators since the 7th century (the senatorial title had become a meaningless adjunct title of nobility by then), elected as their leader Giordano Pierleoni, son of the Roman consul Pier Leoni with the title patrician, because consul was also a deprecated noble styling.