Roman Kingdom
The
Roman Kingdom (
Latin:
Regnum Romanum) was the monarchal
government for the city of
Rome and its territories from its
founding. In Roman legend this took place in
753 BC by
Romulus. The kingdom ended with the expulsion of
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus in
510 BC and the establishment of the
Roman republic.
In Roman legend, when the
Greeks waged
war against the city of
Troy, the Trojan hero
Aeneas sailed across the
Mediterranean Sea to
Italy and founded
Lavinium. His son
Iulus went on to found the city of
Alba Longa. From Alba Longa's royal family came the twins
Romulus and Remus, who went on to
found the city of Rome in
753 BC.
What eventually became the
Roman Empire began as settlements around the
Palatine Hill along the river
Tiber in
Central Italy. The river was navigable up to that place. The site also had a ford where
Tiber could be crossed. The
Palatine Hill and hills surrounding it presented easily defensible positions in the wide fertile plain surrounding them. All these features contributed in the success of the city.
The traditional account of Roman history, which has come down to us through
Livy,
Plutarch,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus and others, is that in Rome's first centuries, it was ruled by a succession of seven kings. The traditional chronology, as codified by
Varro, allots 243 years for their reigns, an extraordinary average of almost 35 years (much longer than any historically documented dynasty), which, since the work of
Barthold Georg Niebuhr, has been generally discounted by modern scholarship. The Gauls destroyed all of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city in the
Battle of the Allia in 390 BC, so no contemporary records of the kingdom exist, and all accounts of the kings must be highly questioned. Archaelogical evidence does, however, support that a settlement was founded in Rome around the middle of the eighth century BC.
Before the
Roman emperors and the
consuls, Rome was a monarchy governed by kings (
Latin:
Rex). The kings, excluding Romulus as the city's founder, were all elected by the people of Rome to serve for life, with none of the kings relying on military force to gain the throne. Though no reference is made to the hereditary principle in the election of the first four kings, beginning with the fifth king
Tarquinius Priscus, the royal inheritance flowed through the royal females of the deceased king. Consequently, the ancient historians state that the king was chosen on account of his virtues and not his descent.
The historians of ancient Rome make it difficult to determine the powers of the king as they referred to the king with the powers of their republican counterparts (namely the consuls). Some modern writers believe that the supreme power of Rome resided in the hands of the people and that the king was just the chief executive for the Senate and people while others believe that the king possessed the sovereign powers and that the Senate and people had only minor checks upon his powers.
What is known for certain is that the king alone possessed the right to the
auspice on behalf of Rome as its chief
augur, and no public business could be performed without the will of the gods made known through auspices. The people knew the king as a mediator between them and the gods and thus viewed the king with religious awe. This made the king the head of the
national religion and its chief executive. Having the power to control the
Roman calendar, he conducted all religious ceremonies and appointed lower religious offices and officers. It was Romulus who instituted the augurs and was who believed to have been the best augur of all. Likewise, King
Numa Pompilius instituted the
pontiffs and through them developed the foundations of the religious
dogma of Rome.
Beyond his religious authority, the king was invested with the supreme military and judicial authority through the use of
imperium. The imperium of the king was held for life and protected him from ever being brought to trial for his actions. As being the sole owner of imperium in Rome at the time, the king possessed unchecked military authority as the
commander-in-chief of all Rome's
legions. Also, the laws that kept citizens safe from the misuse of magistrates owning imperium did not exist during the times of the king.
The king's imperium granted him both military powers as well as qualified him to pronounce legal judgment in all cases as the chief justice of Rome. Though he could assign pontiffs to act as minor judges in some cases, he had supreme authority in all cases brought before him, both civil and criminal. This made the king supreme in times of both war and peace. A council advised the king during all trials, but this council had no power to control the king's decisions. While some writers believed there was no appeal from the king's decisions, others believed that a proposal for appeal could be brought before the king by any
patrician during a meeting of the
Curiate Assembly.
Another power of the king was the power to either appoint or nominate all officials to offices. The king would appoint a
tribunus celerum to serve as both the tribune of Ramnes tribe in Rome but also as the commander of the king's personal bodyguard, similar to the
Roman emperor and the
praetorian prefect. The king was required to appoint the tribune upon entering office and the tribune left office upon the king's death. The tribune was second in rank to the king and also possessed the power to convene the Curiate Assembly and lay legislation before it.
Another officer appointed by the king was the
praefectus urbanus, which acted as the warden of the city. When the king was absent from the city, the prefect held all of the king's powers and abilities, even to the point of being bestowed with imperium while inside the city. The king even received the right to be the sole person to appoint patricians to the Senate.
Under the kings, the Senate and Curiate Assembly had very little power and authority; they were not independent bodies in that they possessed the right to meet together and discuss questions of state. They could only be called together by the king and could only discuss the matters the king laid before them. While the Curiate Assembly did have the power to pass laws that had been submitted by the king, the Senate was just an effectively an honorable council. It could advise the king on his action but by no means could prevent him from acting. The only thing that the king could not do without the approval of the Senate was declare war against a foreign nation.
The insignia of the kings of Rome were twelve
lictors wielding the
fasces bearing axes, the right to sit upon a
Curule chair, the purple
Toga Picta, red shoes, and a white
diadem around the head. Of all these insignia, the most important was the purple toga.
Whenever a king died, Rome entered a period of
‘'interregnum''. The Senate would assemble and appoint an
interrex to serve an indefinite period (normally less than a year) with the sole purpose of nominating the next king of Rome. Once the interrex found a suitable nominee to the kingship, he would bring the nominee before the Senate and the Senate would review him. If the Senate passed the nominee, the interrex would convene the Curiate Assembly and presided as its president during the election of the King.
Once proposed to the Curiate Assembly, the people of Rome could either accept or reject him. If accepted, the king-elect did not immediately enter office. Two other acts had still to take place before he was invested with the full regal authority and power. First it was necessary to obtain the divine will of the gods respecting his appointment by means of the
auspices, since the king would serve as high priest of Rome. This ceremony was performed by an
augur, who conducted the king-elect to the citadel where he was placed on a stone seat as the people waited below. If found worthy of the kingship, the augur announced that the gods had given favorable tokens, thus confirming the king's priestly character.
The second act which had to be performed was the conference of the
imperium upon the King. The Curiate Assembly's previous vote only determined who was to be king, and had not by that act bestowed the necessary power of the king upon him. Accordingly, the king himself proposed to the Curiate Assembly a law granting him imperium, and the Curiate Assembly by voting in favor of the law would grant it. In theory, the people of Rome elected their leader, but the Senate had most of the control over the process.
The reign of Romulus
Romulus was not only Rome's first king but also the city's founder. In
753 BC, Romulus began building the city upon the
Palatine Hill. After founding Rome, he invited criminals, runaway slaves, exiles, and other undesirables by granting them asylum. In this manner, Romulus populated five of the
seven hills of Rome. To provide his citizens with wives, Romulus invited the neighboring
Sabine tribe to a festival where he abducted the Sabine women and brought them back to Rome (remembered as the
Rape of the Sabine Women). After the ensuing war with the Sabines, Romulus brought the Sabines and Romans under one ruler.
Romulus divided the people of Rome between the able bodied men and those unfit for combat. The fighting men became the
Roman legions consisting of 6000 infantry and 600 cavalry. The rest became the people of Rome and out of these people, Romulus selected 100 of the most noble men to serve as senators in an advisory council for the king, the
Roman Senate. These men he called
patricians, and their descendants would become the
republican nobles and elite. With the union between the Romans and Sabines, Romulus added another 100 members to the Senate of Sabine birth.
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Growth of the city region during the kingdom |
Also under Romulus' reign, the
Comitia Curiata was instituted. To form the basic of the Comitia Curiata, Romulus divided the people of Rome into three tribes: one for Romans, a second for Sabines, and a third for all others. Each tribe elected ten representatives, known as
curiae, to form a single voting body. Romulus would convene the Curiate and lay proposals from either himself or the Senate before the Curiate for ratification. All proposals passed before the Comitia Curiata were either unanimously supported or unanimously defeated as the majority of curiate voting was viewed as the opinion of the entire Curiate.
After thirty-eight years as king of Rome, Romulus had fought in several successful wars, expanding the control of Rome over all of
Latium and many of the surrounding areas. Romulus also instituted the
augurs as part of the Roman religion. Romulus would be remembered as early Rome's greatest conqueror and as one of the most religious men in
Roman history. After his death at the age of fifty-four, Romulus was deified as the war god
Quirinus and served not only as one of the three major gods of Rome but also as the deified likeness of the city of Rome.
The reign of Numa Pompilius
After Romulus' strange and mysterious death, the kingship fell to
Numa Pompilius. Though first unwilling to serve as king, his father convinced him to take up the position as a service to the gods. Celebrated for his natural wisdom, Numa's reign was marked by peace and prosperity.
Numa reformed the
Roman calendar by adjusting it for the solar and lunar year as well as by adding the months of January and February to bring the total number of months to twelve. Numa instituted several of Rome's religious rituals including the
Salii, and a
flamen maioris to serve as the chief priest to
Quirinus, the
Flamen Quirinalis. Numa organized the area in and around Rome into districts for easier management. He is also credited with the organization of Rome's first occupational guilds.
Numa is remembered as the most religious of the kings (surpassing even Romulus), and during his reign, he introduced the
flamens, the
vestal virgins of Rome, the
pontiffs and the
College of Pontiffs. Under his administration,
temples to Vesta and
Janus were constructed. Also during his reign, it was said that a shield from
Jupiter fell from the sky with the fate of Rome written on it. Numa ordered eleven copies of the shield to be created and these shields became sacred to the Romans.
As a peace loving and gentle man, Numa planted ideas of meekness and justice within the minds of the Romans. The doors to the Temple of Janus were never open a single day as Numa waged no wars during his entire four decades of rule. He would reign for forty-one years as King and would die a natural, peaceful death.
The reign of Tullus Hostilius
Tullus Hostilius was much like Romulus in his warlike behavior and completely unlike Numa in his lack of respect for the gods. Tullus waged war against
Alba Longa,
Fidenae, and
Veii, thus granting Rome even greater territory and power. It was during Tullus' reign that the city of Alba Longa was completely destroyed and Tullus enslaved the population and sent them back to Rome.
Tullus desired war so much that he even waged another war against the Sabines. With the coming of Tullus' reign, the Romans lost their desire for peace. Tullus fought so many wars that he completely neglected the worship of the gods. Legend has it that because of this, a
plague infected the city, and Tullus himself was among the infected. When Tullus called upon Jupiter and begged assistance, Jupiter responded with a bolt of lightning that burned the king and his house to ashes.
Despite his war-like nature, Tullus Hostilius selected and represented the third group of people to make up Rome's patrician class consisting of those who had come to Rome seeking asylum and a new life. He also constructed a new home for the Senate, the
Curia, which survived for over 500 years after his death. His reign lasted for 31 years.
The reign of Ancus Marcius
Following Tullus' mysterious death, the Romans elected a peaceful and religious king in his place. The king they elected was Numa's grandson,
Ancus Marcius. Much like his grandfather, Ancus did little to expand the borders of Rome and only fought war when his territories needed defending. He also built Rome's first prison on the
Capitoline Hill.
During his reign,
Janiculum Hill on the western bank was fortified to further protect Rome, and the first bridge across the
Tiber River was built. He would also found Rome's port of
Ostia on the
Tyrrhenian Sea and establish Rome's first salt works. During his reign, Rome's size increased as Ancus used
diplomacy to peacefully join some of the smaller surrounding cities into alliance with Rome. Through this method, he completed the conquest of the
Latins and relocated them to the
Aventine Hill, thus forming the
plebeian class of Romans.
He would die a natural death, like his grandfather before him, after 25 years as King, and would be remembered as one of Rome's greatest
pontiffs.
The reign of Tarquinius Priscus
Tarquinius Priscus was not only Rome's fifth king but also the first of
Etruscan birth (though Corinthian ancestry). After emigrating to Rome, he found favour with Ancus, who later adopted him as his son. Upon becoming king, he waged wars against the Sabines and Etruscans, which doubled the size of Rome and brought great treasures to the city.
One of his first reforms was to add one hundred new members to the Senate from the conquered Etruscan tribes, bringing the total number of senators to three hundred. He used the booty Rome had acquired from the conquests to build great monuments for Rome. Among these were Rome's great sewer systems, the
cloaca maxima, which he used to drain the swamp-like area between the Seven Hills of Rome. In the swamp's place, he began what would become the
Roman Forum. He also instituted the founding of the Roman games.
The most famous of his great building projects is the
Circus Maximus, a giant stadium used for chariot races which, to this day, remains the largest stadium in the world. Priscus followed up the Circus Maximus by beginning a temple-fortress to the god Jupiter upon the Capitoline Hill. Unfortunately, he was killed after 38 years as King at the hands of Ancus Marcius' sons before it could be completed. His reign is best remembered for introducing the Roman symbols of military and civil offices as well as the introduction of the
Roman Triumph, being the first Roman to celebrate one.
The reign of Servius Tullius
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The City of the Four Regions, roughly corresponding to the city limits during the later kingdom. The division is traditionally, though probably incorrectly, attributed to Servius Tullius. |
Following Priscus's death, his son-in-law
Servius Tullius succeeded him to the throne, the second king of Etruscan birth to rule Rome. Like his father-in-law before him, Servius fought successful wars against the Etruscans. He used the treasure from the campaigns to build the first walls to fully encompass the Seven Hills of Rome, the
pomerium. He also brought about reforms within the Roman army.
He was renowned for implementing a new constitution for the Romans, further developing the citizen classes. He instituted the world's first
census which divided the people of Rome into five economic classes, and formed the
Century Assembly. He also used his census to divide the people within Rome into four urban tribes based upon location within the city, establishing the
Tribal Assembly. His reign is also given credit for building the temple to
Diana on the
Aventine Hill.
Servius' reforms brought about a major change in Roman life: voting rights were now based upon economic wealth, transferring much of the power into the hands of the Roman elite. However, as time passed, Servius increasingly favored the most impoverished people in order to obtain favors from the plebs. His legislation was very distasteful to the patrician order. Tullius's reign of forty-four years was brought to an end after his assassination in a conspiracy led by his own daughter Tullia and her husband
Tarquinius Superbus.
The reign of Tarquinius Superbus
The seventh and final king of Rome was
Tarquinius Superbus. As the son of Priscus and the son-in-law of Servius, Tarquinius was also of Etruscan birth. It was also during his reign that the Etruscans reached their apex of power. More than other kings before him, Tarquinius used violence, murder, and
terrorism to maintain control over Rome. He repealed many of the earlier constitutional reforms set down by his predecessors.
Tarquinius removed and destroyed all the Sabine shrines and altars from the
Tarpeian Rock, enraging the people of Rome. The people came to object to his rule when he allowed the rape of
Lucretia, a patrician Roman, at the hands of his own son. Lucretia's kinsman,
Lucius Junius Brutus (ancestor to
Marcus Brutus), summoned the Senate and had Tarquinius and the monarchy expelled from Rome in
510 BC.
After Tarquinius' expulsion, the Senate voted to never again allow the rule of a king and reformed Rome into a
republican government in
509 BC. Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, a member of the Tarquin family and Lucretia's widower, went on to become the first
consuls of Rome's new government. This new government would lead the Romans to conquer most of the
Mediterranean world and would survive for the next five hundred years until the rise of
Julius Caesar and
Caesar Augustus. Even then, the trappings of the republic were not entirely done away with; the republic would survive in a debased form until the
Dominate.
To replace the leadership of the kings, a new office was created with the title of
consul. Initially, the consuls possessed all of the king's powers in the form of two men, elected for a one-year term, who could veto each other's actions. Later, the consuls' powers were broken down further by adding other magistrates that each held a small portion of the king's original powers. First among these was the
praetor, which removed the Consuls's judicial authority from them. Next came the
censor, which stripped from the consuls the power to conduct the census.
The Romans instituted the
dictatorship. The dictator was given complete authority over all of Rome's civil and military matters and there was no appeal from his decisions. His power was so absolute that the Romans only dared to appoint a dictator in times of severe emergencies, and the sole thing that kept this dictator from becoming another king of Rome was his six-month term limit.
The king's religious powers were given to two new offices: the
Rex Sacrorum and the
Pontifex Maximus. The rex sacrorum was the
de jure highest religious official for the Republic. His sole task was to make the annual sacrifice to Jupiter, a privilege that had been previously reserved for the king. The pontifex maximus, however, was the
de facto highest religious official, who held most of the king's religious authority. He had the power to appoint all vestal virgins, flamens, pontiffs, and even the rex sacrorum himself. By the beginning of the
1st Century BC, the rex sacrorum was all but forgotten and the pontifex maximus given almost complete religious authority over the Roman religion.
With the ascent of
Gaius Julius Caesar and his adoptive son
Caesar Augustus, the powers of the king almost returned. Gaius Julius Caesar was elected both pontifex maximus and dictator for life, which gave him even more powers than the ancient kings of old. He also affected red shoes, and had a diadem publicly placed on his head by
Mark Anthony, although he removed it to great applause. Caesar was assassinated on the "
Ides of March",
44 BC. During the period between
28 BC and
12 BC, Augustus gained consular imperium and the powers of the
Tribune of the People, combined with the positions of
pontifex maximus and
princeps senatus, making him a
de facto monarch. This was the beginning of the
Principate, although republican institutions continued until the
Dominate. Even into the
Byzantine era, the emperor would share the title of
consul with another.
*
History of Rome*
Timeline of Ancient Rome*
Feral children in mythology and fiction*
Patria Potestas: a view of suppressed matrilinearity in the early legends of Rome
*
The Kings of Rome
