The document discusses the early Roman Republic from 509 BCE to 133 BCE. It notes that during this period there were two dominant themes: 1) the expansion of Rome first in Italy and then the Mediterranean, and 2) a gradual constitutional change from aristocracy to democracy through the extension of political and social equality to the lower plebeian classes. The patricians established the Republic by replacing the monarchy with consuls and the Senate retaining legislative power, though they initially controlled the system through their clients in the Centuriate Assembly.