Roman Kingdom

Origins

Rome grew from Iron Age villages on the Palatine and nearby hills by the Tiber crossing. Tradition dated its founding by Romulus to 753 BCE; archaeology shows settlement from the 10th century BCE and the drainage and paving of the Forum around 650–600 BCE, when the villages became a single city.

Rule and society

The king (rex) ruled with the advice of a Senate of clan elders, and the people were organised in thirty curiae. Tradition credits Numa Pompilius with Rome's religious institutions and Servius Tullius with the census and a new army based on wealth classes. The last three kings had Etruscan links; under them Rome built the Cloaca Maxima and the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and became the leading city of Latium.

Decline and legacy

Tradition says that after Sextus Tarquinius raped Lucretia, Lucius Junius Brutus led the nobles in expelling Tarquinius Superbus in 509 BCE. The kingship was replaced by two annually elected consuls, founding the Roman Republic. The title rex survived only in a priesthood, and Romans long hated the very word.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.