Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
Aren't the special abilities technically part of the leader rather than the civ? Of course, you can't actually pick a different leader for the civ, so it's a fairly redundant distinction...
It's a holdover from Civ IV where some Civs had multiple leaders with different abilities. It doesn't work in Civ V though- even with modding a Civ cannot have more than one possible leader.