100 BC. Rome was still a republic then.
Well, Rome was never a republic. The Senate was made up of men who served when they felt it was time for them to serve, and they were from about 35 families. Elected offices were for the hoi-polloi, and had little power. The permanent chief executive arose because Rome had conquered non-Roman citizens, and ruled from one end of the Med to the other, and from the Rhine to the margin of the Sahara. And the Senatorial families were akin to mafia crime families, lawless and corrupt.
Benjaminus Franklinus: “If you can keep it.”