Not only that, but their biggest role model was a fictional role model at the time of Gaius Julius Caesar. I am referring to Cincinnatus, the fictitious general who held the office of dictator but then retired back to his farm when the crisis was over. Most of what we know of Roman monumental architecture was built afterwards, by obscenely rich men, emperors and popes, to glorify themselves.
Most of our high ideals of a republic really are repeats of fake nostalgia even back then, to a time when the SPQR was governed by men with noble ideals rather than ruled by the vulgar rich. The more things change, and so on.
