Rome was led by Senators who legislated. The city was not to be ruled based on arbitrary decisions taken by a king, an autocrat, but rather on deliberation. The leaders themselves came from a group of advisers that Romulus supposedly had formed to guide him; their descendants became known as the patricians. They became the leading class of Roman citizens, a subgroup of about five percent of the population, and would ultimately constitute the men who were to serve at the helm of Rome for five hundred years during the Republic and, subsequently, the Empire. The importance of the Senate for Roman history cannot be emphasized enough; when looking around Roman monuments that still survive one will see stamped on them SPQR – Senatus Populusque Romanus (the Roman Senate and People). It can be found on coins, weapons, and anything possessed by the state. The correct answer is B.