Rome was unique in the sense it had an increasingly wealthy class, the equites that could not directly wield political power. And the status of the plebeians was an ever present question. Later the question of citizenship for the allies.



The politics of Rome should maybe revolve around this. Two parties - call them optimates and populares - and a crisis system akin to what japan has in EUIV. The optimates are the status quo party and the populares those who want to change the exiting system. A crisis - status of the plebeians, the allies wanting citizenship, the situation with the ager publicus - that could each trigger. The trigger could be actual game actions - like the citizenship question triggers when you conquered all of Italy. You could even have multiple crisis at the same time. Event would come up and your answer would increase support of some of the parties. Depending on the outcome of the crisis laws are set in place. If the oprimates won and the Senate refuses change it could lead to an uprising/civil war of the looser. The same could happen if the populares win - in this case the leader (and his great family) of the loosing party could (depending on his loyalty etc) rise up in rebellion to reverse the change.