Jumping
back a few
thousand years to the time of
Rome, Republicans were
simply those who were for the
Roman Republic and
against autocracy. In 5th Century B.C. the Roman
people threw off the
shackles of the
Hellenistic Etruscan Monarchs, establishing the famed Roman
Republic. Until c. 80 B.C. this
governmental order had never been
disturbed, and wasn't again until 49 B.C. In 80 it had been
Sulla, but it was
temporary, in 49 it was
Caesar, and it began the Roman Empire and the end of the Roman Republic.
At this stage the nation was divided, and virtually remained so for its entierety. On one side you had the Autocrats, those who supported whomever was currently wielding the powers of a Rex. On the other side you had the reactionary Republicans, who strived for nothing more than to topple the Autocrats and revive the Republic. Although not all Republicans actively sought Civil War (many of them, such as Tacitus, simply wrote), when a prominent Republican stood up, he often raised a faction of rebels and sparked yet another Roman Civil War.
The following is a list of the most notable Republicans:
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
Marcus Brutus
Cassius
Scipio (not Scipio Africanus)
Juba
Sextus Pompeius
Publius Cornelius Tacitus