The Roman Empire, the Most American Thing That Ever Am

Rome's constitution was written by the patricians, who had been powerful for a long time. But as they got richer and became more power-hungry, ordinary people started to feel left out. The senate parliamentarian is one example of how this led to riots on the streets. This article originally appeared in iReporters: A History Of Democracy (September 2013) at http://www.theguardian.com/magazine/2013/09/29/roman-republics-constitutive-laws.html#storylink=cpy. We would like to make it clear that we are not referring to our current political system or any part of it