At the heart of this blended system was the Senate, a body of legislators chosen from a group of elite families. Rome was divided into two broad classes, the patricians, a small group of aristocratic families, and the plebeians, basically everyone else. The Senate was sort of a mixture of legislature and giant advisory council. Their main job was to set policy for the consuls. Each year, the Senate would choose from among its ranks two co-consuls to serve as sort of the chief executives of Rome. There needed to be two so that they could check each other's ambition, and also so that one could, you know, take care of Rome domestically while the other was off fighting wars conquering new territory. There were two additional checks on power.