Differing Evaluations. In some respects, the Roman government was highly democratic. Magistrates were popularly elected, and even individual laws were all voted on only by the people. Yet, at least one contemporary observer saw it a little differently. The Greek historian Polybius, who lived in Rome for many years in the mid-second century B.C.E., described it as a mixture of democratic, aristocratic, and monarchical elements. Some modern scholars, noting that the magistracies were largely held by the same powerful families for generations, have gone even farther. They see Rome as run by a thinly disguised oligarchy—rule by the few. Some of the difference of opinion seems to come from how people feel about their own political systems, but there are legitimate questions as well. If modern elections have proved nothing else...