Democracy isn’t older than Rome. It’s older than the Roman Republic (barely, if we accept the likely-fabricated date for the foundation of the Republic) but there were not any democracies prior to the 8th century BC foundation of the city.
Anyway, this is probably why OP is using a pretend Rome. Anyway, interesting project and I’m intrigued to see where this goes. I’ve followed most Rome-related WIPs closely.