#267 Why did Rome become a republic?

I learned this today. Rome became a republic because the last king of the Roman Kingdom was overthrown.

The Kingdom of Rome was founded in 753 BC. There is no written evidence for this. It all comes from oral histories. All of the histories that we can look at were written when Rome had become a republic and there is no way of knowing how accurate they are.

There were 7 kings of the Roman Kingdom. The first king was supposedly Romulus, but there is also no historical evidence for him as well. Romulus was the person who founded the city of Rome after the death of his twin brother Remus. It is impossible to know if there was a real person behind the myth of Romulus. There was obviously somebody who started the city of Rome, but whether it was Romulus is doubtful. The Romulus and Remus story first appeared in the 4^th century BC and many historians think that historians of the Roman Republic created the myth to give their civilization a suitable origin story. They may even have created the name Romulus after their city was called “Rome” and not the other way around.

Six kings followed Romulus. These were: Numa Pompilius (715-716 BC), Tullus Hostilius (715-672 BC), Ancus Marcius (640-616 BC), Tarquinius Priscus (616-578 BC), Servius Tullius(578-534 BC), and Tarquinius Superbus (534-509 BC). There is evidence for the last three kings and these days many historians also believe that the first three kings were real.

There is one theory that these kings were not actually Roman but were Etruscan. The Etruscan civilization existed before the Romans took over all of Italy. They ruled the northwest side of Italy. Some people say the evidence shows that the Etruscans actually founded Rome and that the line of kings were Etruscan. The evidence is not conclusive and there is no way of knowing. A lot of early records were destroyed when Rome was sacked by Gaul in 390 BC. Also, if the early kings were Etruscan, the Roman historians might have had reason to make them Roman.

The kings of the Roman Kingdom had complete power over their dominion. They were the head of the army, the head of the church, the head of the courts, and the chief judge. They were immune from prosecution and had almost absolute power. The only difference between them and later kings was that they were elected. The senate would nominate a candidate for king, and they would vote on that choice.

So, why did the Roman Kingdom become the Roman Republic? Well, according to the later historians, it is because of the last king, Tarquinius Superbus. Whether or not the stories about him are true, or if they were later inventions, is impossible to know.

Tarquinius Superbus came to the throne by assassinating his predecessor and putting to death several senators whom he believed were still loyal to Servius Tullius. Superbus then becomes somewhat of a tyrant who uses up public money building in the city. The people of Rome, especially the powerful nobles who were also the senators, were up in arms and ready for a revolution. The spark appears to have been the rape of Lucretia Collatinus by King Superbus’s son. The nobles were incensed, and Lucretia committed suicide. Her husband and father raised a legal assembly of the people, called a comitia and had them revoke the king’s power. The comitia did so and the king, seeing that things had turned against him, fled to Etruria. This lends more weight to the argument that the first seven kings of Rome were actually Etruscan. It was 509 BC. In the king’s place, the comitia decided to choose two consuls to rule. They chose Lucius Junius Brutus (the head of the king’s bodyguards) and Collatinus (the husband of the deceased Lucretia) who became the first consuls of Rome.

Tarquinius Superbus tried to retake his throne several times, but was unsuccessful and died in 495 BC.

So, how much of all that is true? Nobody really knows. The Romans themselves openly said that their histories were a mix of truth and story. A lot of the things that happened have striking resemblances to things that happen in Greek stories. The rape of someone by a terrible king is a common theme and it was not unusual for the Romans to make up things in their histories. Similar tactics would be used for the Emperor Nero.

So, when did the Roman Republic start? There is no answer that can be supported with sufficient evidence, but sometime around 500 BC seems likely. Why did it start? A bad king was probably overthrown. He may have been Etruscan, he may not.

However, what is known is that the new Roman Republic went from strength to strength and by the time it stopped being a republic in 27 BC, it had become a huge empire. And this is what I learned today.

Photo by Andrea Albanese: https://www.pexels.com/photo/the-colosseum-397431/

Sources:

https://www.ushistory.org/civ/6a.asp

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/ancient-medieval/roman-empire/a/roman-republic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Republic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Kingdom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numa_Pompilius

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rome-founded

https://www.rome.net/roman-monarchy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Tarquinius_Superbus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruria