[beascarpetta]

would you rather have examples taken from prose authors or poets (where there might be ambiguous undertones concerning the meaning of the word "status" such as in Plautus,slightly ironic even) and which era would you be most interested in?

I find both Livy's use of the phrase "in pristinum status/in pristinos status redire" meaning to return to pristine values
and his use of "status" within military context
statibus movere hostes to mess up the enemy's battle line
as well as
Tacitus' use of "rei publicae status" as a state's constitution/mode of being (used several times in plural as well,especially in his Annals,Agricola,..) as opposed to Caesar's use of "eo statu res erat" such was the state of affairs
show how diverse the word's original meaning "(the act of)standing" actually became.