The government first instituted by Romulus, the founder of this extraordinary empire, was that perfect sort, as it is termed by Dionysius and Polybius, which consisted of a due admixture of the regal, aristocratick, and democratick powers. As this great man received the crown as a reward for his superior merit, and held it by the best of all titles, the willing and unanimous choice of a free people; and as he is universally allowed to be the sole institutor of their first form of government, I cannot help ranking him amongst the most celebrated lawgivers and heroes of antiquity. Romulus’s plan of government, though formed upon the model of Lycurgus, was evidently, in some respects, superior to the Spartan. For the executive power in the Roman government was lodged in one man only; the number of the senators was much greater, and though the whole body of the Romans was formed into one regular militia, yet the lowest class of the people were directed to apply themselves to agriculture, grazing, and other lucrative employments; a practice wholly prohibited to the free Spartans. The great employments of the state were solely confined to the Patricians, or aristocratick part; but the Plebeians, or commonalty, had in return the power of choosing magistrates, enacting laws, and determining about all wars when proposed by the king. But still their decrees were not final, for the concurrence of the senate was absolutely necessary to give a sanction to whatever the people had determined. Whether the Romans would have continued the regal power in their founder’s family by hereditary succession, cannot possibly be determined, because, when Romulus was put to death by the Patricians for aiming at more power than was consistent with their limited monarchy, he left no children. This however is certain, that their monarchy continued to be elective, and was attended with those disorders which are the usual effects of that capital error in politicks, until the usurpation of Tarquinius Superbus.