Republic
According to tradition and later writers such as Livy, the Roman Republic was established around 509 BC,[27] when the last of the seven kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was deposed by Lucius Junius Brutus, and a system based on annually elected magistrates and various representative assemblies was established.[28] A constitution set a series of checks and balances, and a separation of powers. The most important magistrates were the two consuls, who together exercised executive authority as imperium, or military command.[29] The consuls had to work with the senate, which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or patricians, but grew in size and power.[30]
Other magistracies in the Republic include tribunes, quaestors, aediles, praetors and censors.[31] The magistracies were originally restricted to patricians, but were later opened to common people, or plebeians.[32] Republican voting assemblies included the comitia centuriata (centuriate assembly), which voted on matters of war and peace and elected men to the most important offices, and the comitia tributa (tribal assembly), which elected less important offices.[33]