Prerepublican Rome

Date: 800-509 b.c.e.

Locale: Latium, central Italy

Prerepublican Rome

From the founding of Rome in 753 b.c.e. (according to writer Marcus Terentius Varro) to the year 510 b.c.e., Rome was ruled by seven kings. The kings and the dates of their reigns given below are according to the traditional or “canonical” list; other traditions and archaeological evidence do not agree.

The first, Romulus (753-715 b.c.e.), established his supremacy by decreeing that the king would be preceded by twelve lictors and would have a special chair. He then established laws and created the senate as an advisory board. When neighboring peoples refused to intermarry with the Romans, Romulus developed a plan to hold a festival and invite the neighboring peoples to participate and see the new city. When a signal was given, the Romans seized the unmarried women and convinced them to become their wives. Later these very same women, known as the Sabine women, stopped the war between their fathers and husbands and joined the two peoples together, increasing Rome’s population.

Romulus disappeared mysteriously one day. Because the people believed that the senators had murdered Romulus, a senator, Julius Proculus, announced that Romulus had appeared to him and said that he had been taken up by the gods. From then on, Romulus was worshiped as the god Quirinus. Because no method for succession had been established, the government passed into a period called an interregnum (“between reigns”). After a year of the interregnum, the people chose Numa Pompilius, a Sabine, as king.

Numa Pompilius (r. 715-673 b.c.e.) earned his reputation as a man of peace and religion. Numa’s religious innovations included organizing of the cult of the Vestal Virgins, building the temple of Janus, and naming the first pontifex maximus (high priest). Numa also established the twelve-month lunar calendar. Because these months were only twenty-eight days long, Numa included an intercalary month—a varying period of days inserted when necessary to bring the lunar calendar back in line with the seasons.

After Numa’s death, the people elected Tullus Hostilius (r. 672-641 b.c.e.) as king. Tullus had little interest in religion and immediately began expanding Rome’s territory through conquest. Tullus conquered many towns, most notably bringing the population of Alba Longa to Rome. He ordered the construction of the Curia Hostilia, the senate house, and added the Caelian hill to the area of the city, which had previously consisted of the Palatine, Aventine, and Capitoline hills. When Rome was hit with a plague, Tullus turned to religion to save himself, but when he made a mistake in performing a ritual, his house was struck by lightning, and he was instantly killed.

Next, Ancus Marcius (r. 640-617 b.c.e.) was chosen as king. Ancus was the nephew of Numa, but unlike his uncle or his predecessor, he struck a balance between religion and warfare. Ancus established a special ritual for declaring war and ordered the pontifex maximus to make the procedures for all religious rituals public. Ancus added the Janiculum hill to Rome’s control and ordered the construction of the first bridge across the Tiber River.

During Ancus’s reign, an Etruscan couple came to Rome—Lucumo and Tanaquil. Lucumo changed his name to Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. Because they were wealthy and generous, the couple soon became well known. Lucius became an adviser to the king, and the couple was appointed as guardians for Ancus’s young sons. When Ancus died, Lucius actively and successfully campaigned to become king.

Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (r. 616-579 b.c.e.) began a number of building projects in Rome: the Circus Maximus, the city wall, and the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. He also began the Roman games, doubled the number of Rome’s mounted troops, and enlarged the senate.

Even though there was no concept of a father passing the kingship to a son, Ancus’s sons felt that Lucius had usurped their right to rule. They therefore hired some herdsmen to assassinate Lucius. When Tanaquil heard the commotion caused by the attack, she had Lucius carried to their palace. She then summoned her son-in-law, Servius Tullius. Tanaquil issued the statement that Lucius was only injured and that Servius would rule until he recovered. Servius took the duties of the king, deciding some cases on his own, but pretending to refer others to Lucius. Soon, however, they revealed that Lucius was dead, but by that time, Servius had established his power.

Servius Tullius (r. 578-535 b.c.e.) established the first census, which counted approximately eighty thousand male citizens. Servius added the Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline hills to the city, and he made Rome the center of worship for the goddess Diana.

Although Servius had tried to make peace with Lucius’s sons by marrying them to his daughters, one son (Lucius Tarquinius, better known as Superbus) and one of his own daughters (Tullia) plotted to take over. When Lucius believed he had enough support, he challenged Servius’s right to rule because he had never been elected by the people. Even though the people voted overwhelmingly for Servius, Superbus could not accept defeat. One day he went to the senate house and summoned the senators. When Servius heard, he came to challenge Superbus, but Superbus seized the elderly king and hurled him down the steps of the senate house. Tradition has it that Tullia, riding in a cart, ran over her father’s body.

In this way, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (r. 534-c. 509 b.c.e.) became the last king of Rome. He completed many of the building programs his father had begun, expanding the Temple of Jupiter, adding seats to the Circus Maximus, and building the Cloaca Maxima (the Great Sewer). Superbus, however, treated the Roman people harshly, killing those who were too wealthy or too powerful for his liking, but finally the Roman people expelled the Tarquins when the king’s son, Sextus, raped Lucretia, a virtuous noblewoman. Thus ended the monarchy and began the republic.

Although this traditional version of Rome’s past contains elements of folklore and legend, as archaeologists have uncovered more of the remains of early Rome, they have found that the archaeological record supports the essentials—the buildings, the influx of Etruscan culture, Etruscan rule and its later expulsion, and Rome’s population growth through the addition of other peoples.

Bibliography

Cornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 b.c.). New York: Routledge, 1995.

Gardner, Jane F. Roman Myths. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.

Scullard, H. H. A History of the Roman World 753 to 146 b.c. New York: Methuen, 1980.