The Roman Republic was one of the earliest and long-lasting democracies (510-27 BCE). To prevent the creation of dictatorship, it had a system of separation of powers but it failed to protect the Roman Republic. The ultimate cause of the fall of the Roman Republic was due to the immense wealth that Rome accumulated from its empire and the impact this wealth had on Rome’s institutions, especially its generals. Cicero proposed constitutional reforms to prevent its demise. His reforms were unnecessary because the Roman Senate already had the constitutional authority to prevent its demise. The problem was that Senators lacked an incentive to use their constitutional authority to save Rome’s democracy.

罗马共和国是最早和持久的民主国家之一（公元前510-27年）。为了防止独裁统治的产生，它实行了分权制，但未能保护罗马共和国。罗马共和国沦陷的最终原因是罗马从其帝国中积累了巨大的财富，并且这种财富对罗马的机构，特别是将军，产生了影响。西塞罗提出了宪法改革，以防止其消亡。他的改革是不必要的，因为罗马参议院已经拥有防止其灭亡的宪法权力。问题是，参议员缺乏动机来利用其宪法权威来拯救罗马的民主。