“Well, Rome was never a republic.”
I see. They invented the term, “res publica”, (which means ‘public affairs’) but were never one.
It’ s not that they were not organized to tend to their public affairs, (a republic) it’s that over time the way we take care of public affairs has changed.
Even today the term republic has different meanings. Our republic is quite different than an Islamic Republic such as Iran.
Our republic is quite different than an Islamic Republic such as Iran, because Iran is a dictatorship, which, like the Pyongyang dictatorship, or the Venezuelan republic, merely calls itself a republic.