Called assemblies, these legislative bodies shared power in the following ways: As a result, new legislative, or law-making, bodies of the Roman Republic were formed. This gave the plebeians a voice in the government. until 494 B.C.E., when a strike orchestrated by the plebeians resulted in the establishment of the Concilium Plebis, or the Councilof the Plebs. The Senate lasted as a sole governing body for the republic for only a brief time, lasting from the republic’s founding in 509 B.C.E. Although the Senate did not formally make laws, the prestige of its members gave the Senate great influence over Rome’s law-making bodies. In the republic, members of the patrician class served as advisers to the other governing bodies of the republic. The Senate advised on matters pertaining to rules governing the city and population. At the heart of the Roman Republic was the Senate. Over a period of nearly 200 years, however, the plebeians fought for and gained power within the government. Everyone else was considered plebeian, and no member of this group could hold office.

Initially, Rome’s wealthiest families, the patricians, held power and only they could hold political or religious offices.

Rome’s next government served as a representative democracy in the form of a republic. after the last Etruscan king that ruled Rome was overthrown. The Roman Republic was founded in 509 B.C.E.