The city of Athens was a democracy, where the people voted on their laws and leaders. But Rome didn’t become a democracy like Athens, though. In Athens, all the men who weren’t slaves could vote about laws and leaders. But in Rome, only rich and powerful men called patricians were allowed to have a say in the government. Two of these patricians were appointed by the other patricians to be the leaders of the city. They were called consuls. The Romans thought that having two leaders, instead of one king, would keep any one man from getting too much power. The two consuls were supposed to keep an
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