If the Roman Republic was neither a democracy nor a monarchy, how would you char

Question: If the Roman Republic was neither a democracy nor a monarchy, how would you characterize it as a polit system!?
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In theory it was a democracy; in practice it was an oligarchy!. All citizens had the vote; but they voted by clan and class and votes were weighted accordingly!. In addition, they had to vote in person on the Field of Mars - so no-one who lived more than a day's travel away ever got to vote!.

The effect was that pretty much all the major offices went to those from patrician families!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It was an oligarchy!. Citizenship was restricted to those who had property and were male!. Until the fading days of the Republic, only landed citizens could serve in the Legions!. They had to pay for their own armor and weapons!. This changed one generation before Julius Caesar when one of his uncles threw open the Legions to unlanded non-citizens!. He also awarded citizenship to 50 Legionaires in each Legion after a notable campaign (and alienated the Senate by doing it)!.

Until that time, blood determined citizenship!. A handful of clans effectively ruled Rome because they were the ones with the votes and the means to buy votes!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It was a republic!
http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Roman_Repub!.!.!.

It had a constitution!. The Roman empire was a monarchy before the Republic and a dictatorship (the Caesars) after!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

An oligarchy or plutocracy!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It was an aristocracy!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

oligarchyWww@QuestionHome@Com

It was a Republic!. Duh!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

The legend of Romulus and Remus dated the founding Rome at 753 BCE, but from modern archaeology comes evidence that around the year 1000 Rome was already a collection of villages!. These villages were fifteen miles inland from the sea, along the banks of the then navigable Tiber River!. A search of historical records indicates that the Romans were organized around tribal clans!. Like other Latins in Italy they tilled small plots of land, pastured cows, pigs and goats and tended flocks of sheep!. Like other tribal peoples they had a council of elders, and their chiefs were chosen by clan elders and by the acclamation of their entire people!.

Various Etruscan kings conquered parts of Italy and held it as empire!. And sometime around 600 BCE, Etruscan chieftains led an army southward and conquered Rome and areas beyond!.

By the time that Etruscans had conquered Rome, the Romans had already been divided between common folk called plebeians and aristocrats called patricians - modern scholars estimating the patricians to be from five to ten percent of Rome's population!. Whether the patricians were descendants of a people who had conquered the Romans before the Etruscans or were Romans who had become an elite is unknown!. Most patricians were from the families of successful farmers, but a few were not very wealthy!. Like other aristocracies, the patricians based their superiority on their family name, even if the family's success in farming and wealth had declined!.

the aristocrats of Rome cooperated with their conquerors while maintaining their higher status and privileges over the plebeians!. Some patrician families adopted Etruscan names!. And patricians held onto priestly positions - which were denied to plebeians!.

Rome under the Etruscans resembled a Greek city!. Like Greek cities, it had a senate: an advisory council of elders who were mainly patricians!. Rome's most important temple and meeting place was a building like a Greek acropolis, called the capitol!. The capitol had a Greek-like public assembly called the comitia - where plebeians were a minority and outvoted!.

In 509 BCE, a group of Roman nobles, who were fed up with their Etruscan king, Tarquin, drove him from Rome and into early retirement!. Leading patrician families among the Romans took power and ruled as members of the Senate!. Without a king, Rome had become a republic!. The Senate, or council of elders, had long been accustomed to watching developments and advising the king at his request, and now the Senate was ready to serve as the supreme organ of government!. What the Senate created would develop into a model in some regards for those founding the United States of America!.

It was common among the nobility of Greek cities in southern Italy to choose one among them as an executive - a president!. And in place of a king, the Senate chose not one but two as executive administrators in order to avoid the unreliability of a single administrator!. Each executive was a patrician, and each was called a consul!. Each was to serve one-year - as among the Greeks - and each was given the power to veto a move by the other!.

The selection of the consuls had to be ratified by an assembly of clan leaders (the Comitia Curiata)!. And, as leaders of the Senate, the consuls decided who would be promoted within the Senate!. The consuls could declare an emergency and acquire absolute power for six months!. But the consuls' powers were limited in that they could not declare war!. War was thought too important to be left to two men!. Declaring war would be a prerogative of the Senate!. But the consuls would be commanders-in-chief of the military, including the power to have soldiers executed for lack of discipline!. And during war, if it was time for elections and both consuls were away on military missions, the Senate could appoint a dictator to preside over the elections!.

When there was no war the consuls were occupied with city administration, public finances, and civil and criminal justice!. By now, apparently, the crime of murder was no longer dealt with by one's clan but by the state!. The consuls could sentence citizens to death, but citizens had the right to appeal such sentences before a special assembly of plebeians!.

After the invasion of the Gauls, common plebeians fought for relief from economic distress, and the wealthier of the plebeians sought eligibility to run for the position of consul!. From 367 through the following eighty years, the Senate approved reform measures, including laws that allowed plebeians to become consuls, praetors, or quaestors - the latter being money managers connected to various aspects of government or military campaigns!. Bills were passed that, for the sake of greater equality, limited the size of lands that were distributed by the state!. Bills were passed that reformed debt payment!. And in 326 a law was passed that protected the personal freedom of plebeians by outlawing the age-old practice of debtors being made serfs to their creditors!.

It became custom that one consul was to be a plebeian and the other to be a patrician!. Another change came with the censor acquiring the power not only to take the census but to fill vacancies that had arisen in the Senate and to remove from the Senate any member he deemed undesirable!. And the censor was given charge over state construction of buildings and roads!.Www@QuestionHome@Com