When Romans overthrew their king, they created a system which ensured that political leaders would have to share power amongst themselves and take turns exercising it. But this system still kept power in the hands of an elite class, represented most clearly by the Senate. Only the richest or most talented new men could enter its ranks and join the noble families. The Optimates believed that the Senate represented the best of Roman society: those whose education, talent, and wisdom qualified them to lead.
Meanwhile, ordinary Roman citizens suffered economic distress, and millions of non-citizens were enslaved. Roman democracy made ordinary citizens participants in the political process, but limited their actual power. Populare politicians took seriously ordinary citizens concerns, but they also swept aside norms, provoked political violence, and in the last years of the Republic plundered foreign nations to buy popularity at home.
Did the Roman Republic fall because it was too democratic for the realities of Roman society, or because it was not democratic enough?
Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, eds., Roman Civilization Selected Readings: Volume I, The Republic and the Augustan Age, 3rd (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).
