The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word CRASSUS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
C
R
A
S
S
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S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "historically a rich Republican leader (Rome being the republic in question)" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case historically a rich republican leader (rome being the republic in question) = crassus.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.