Chapter 1 - From Dream To A Republic

10th History, Ch.
1: From Dream to a Republic 1
Introduction: The Dream of Rome
The dreams that people have, the desires of individuals and communities, motivate action. This
chapter focuses on the dream of Rome. As a geographical location, Rome is variably a city, a
political, economic, social, religious, and cultural center, the heart of an empire, and the place
where “all reads” lead. As a dream, Rome is a vision of a unified way of life: one people, one
language, one law. Rome represents an idea of citizenship, of distinguishing rights and
responsibilities under the rule of law. Though its origins mythically begin in fratricide, and its
history matures in civil war and corrupt emperors, the strength of Rome, and the reason that
students around the globe continue to study it, lies in the appeal of a universal way of life. That
vision is as ancient as the Tower of Babel and as contemporary as the United States; driven
forward by a sense of justice, the dream of peaceful life under a common order has given rise to
various attempts to replicate Rome’s centrality.
In the 4th century AD, Constantine ordered a new capital, a “second Rome,” built in the East.
Though it went variably by Constantinople and Byzantium (and is today called Istanbul), this
new Rome served as the visible extension of the dream into the eastern regions of Europe.
Moscow was later called the “third Rome,” and the Czars, a linguistic devolution from Caesars,
ruled with tyrannical power. When Charlemagne received the Pope’s blessing in 800 AD, Pope
Leo III crowned him the “Holy Roman Emperor.” This empire, Voltaire noted in the 18th
century, was neither “holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” In contemporary Europe, the European
Union extends the dream of a unified European economic zone where citizens can travel and act
freely. The global dream of a common language, and a common law, is a major component of the
Western tradition. That component began with Rome, and, like many important historical
elements, it began small.
Roman history moves through three major phases, and each of them have multi-volume histories
dedicated to their stories. This textbook has three chapters dedicated to the story of Rome. This
chapter will focus on the Roman monarchy; the next chapter will focus on the Republic, and the
third will cover the story of the Roman empire. These stories are vast, with many institutions,
cultural practices, historical figures, and stories of sometimes dubious origins. Rome had many
historians, and these chapters will draw on those historians to trace the rise and fall of Rome:
Plutarch, Livy, Tacitus, Sallust, Suetonius, and more.
● Has Rome always lived up the idea of Rome?

● List two other cities in the world today that claim to be heirs of Rome.
● How do ideas drive human action? Use Rome as an example in answering this question.
10th History, Ch.1: From Dream to a Republic 2
The Founding of Rome, and its First King
Roman history begins in myth, shrouded by the mists of time. We do not have a clear
documentary basis for the origins of Rome; instead, we have accounts written by various
historians writing during the Roman Republic and Empire periods. These accounts largely agree,
and have come down through the ages as a generally coherent narrative. Rome’s founding date,
753 BC, is undisputed but also unprovable. The narrative below follows Livy’s The Early
History of Rome, and is checked against the contemporary historical account given by Ward,
Heichelheim, and Yeo’s A History of the Roman People: Fourth Edition. Livy, like many ancient
historians, consciously shaped his historical narrative to convey moral lessons and tell stories
establishing the institutions present in his day. Take the narrative below with a grain of salt, but
know that this was the undoubted story of Rome’s rise for centuries. While modern historians
tend to look with skepticism on the more supernatural elements in ancient historical writing, it
is undoubted that past generations accepted these stories with some level of credibility.
Livy begins his account noting the difficulty historical craft has in reaching beyond existing
knowledge or records: “Events before Rome was born or thought of have come to us in old tales
with more of the charm of poetry than of a sound historical record, and such traditions I propose
neither to affirm nor refute.”1 Though Livy informs his reader he has collected rather than pruned
the stories of the past, he frequently offers competing interpretations which contrast an
acceptance of the supernatural with a naturalistic explanation. When he recounts Romulus’
death, he describes one view where Romulus is taken to the gods via cloud; the other option, he
explains, is that Romulus was torn apart by a crowd of senators. Which tale is more plausible he
leaves for the reader to decide. His goal is not strict factual accuracy, but instead to draw the
reader’s eye towards the lessons in the stories of Rome’s rise:
I invite the reader’s attention to the much more serious consideration of the kind of lives
our ancestors lived, of who were the men, and what were the means both in politics and
in war by which Rome’s power was first acquired and subsequently expanded; I would
then have him trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the
foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly
increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark
dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies
needed to cure them.2
His present late-Republic era, Livy believed, was an era of decline. The most important Roman
virtues, austerity and strength, had been replaced by luxury and weakness. History, in Livy’s
view, is the tale of Rome failing to live up to the example set by those who went before. What
was that example? Let’s find out.
1
Livy, Early History of Rome, 30.
2
LIvy, 30.
Rome began with Aeanes fleeing Troy; these refugee Trojans settled in the center of the Italian
Peninsula, eventually building first the city of Lavinium and then Alba Longa. Rome proper
originates in the efforts of Amulius to protect his throne; he first drove out his older brother
Numitor, after which he “proceeded to murder his brother’s male children, and made his niece,
Rhea Silvia, a Vestal [Virgin], ostensibly to do her honor, but actually condemning her to
perpetual virginity to preclude the possibility of issue.”3 If Rhea never had children, then
Amulius’ claim to the throne would remain more secure. Amulius’ plan failed - Rhea eventually
gave birth to twins Romulus and Remus. Livy’s rendering of their origins is worth recounting at
length:
The Vestal Virgin was raped and gave birth to twin boys. Mars, she declared, was their
father–perhaps she believed it, perhaps she was merely hoping by the pretence to palliate
her guilt. Whatever the truth of the matter, neither gods nor men could save her or her
babies from the savage hands of the king [Amulius]. The mother was bound and flung
into prison; the boys, by the king’s order, were condemned to be drowned in the river.
Destiny, however, intervened; the Tiber had overflowed its banks; because of the flooded
ground it was impossible to get to the actual river, and the men entrusted to do the deed
thought that the flood-water, sluggish though it was, would serve their purpose.
Accordingly they made shift to carry out the king’s orders by leaving the infants on the
edge of the first flood-water they came to, at the spot where now stands the Ruminal
fig-tree–said to have been known as the fig-tree of Romulus. In those days the country
thereabouts was all wild and uncultivated, and the story goes that when the basket in
which the infants had been exposed was left high and dry by the receding water, a
she-wolf, coming down from the neighboring hills to quench her thirst, heard the children
crying and made her way to where they were. She offered them her teat to suck and
treated them with such gentleness that Faustulus, the king’s herdsman, found her licking
them with her tongue. Faustulus took them to his hut and gave them to his wife Laurentia
to nurse. Some think that the origin of this fable was the fact that Laurentia was a
common whore and was called Wolf by the shepherds.4
The story continues, unfolding with all the drama of an ancient epic: Remus is arrested for
pranking during the Lupercalia festival as a teenager, and judged by his uncle Numitor (the
rightful king who Amulius displaced). Romulus gathers a band to rescue his brother, when they
are both recognized by their uncle Numitor as his long lost royal nephews. They then overthrow
and kill Amulius, restoring Numitor to the throne of Alba Longa. The twins then decide that they
want to begin their own city; the settlement they began was eventually named Rome.
While the twins initially agreed to rule together, that agreement quickly broke down:
3
Livy, 34.
4
Livy, 34-35.
…they determined to ask the tutelary gods of the countryside to declare by augury
which of them should govern the new town once it was founded, and give his name to it.
For this purpose, Romulus took the Palatine hill and Remus the Aventine as their
respective stations from which to observe the auspices. Remus, the story goes, was the
first to receive a sign–six vultures; and no sooner was this made known to the people than
double the number of birds appears to Romulus. The followers of each promptly saluted
their master as king, one side basing its claims upon priority, the other upon number.
Angry words ensued, followed all too soon by blows, and in the course of the affray
Remus was killed. There is another story, a commoner one, according to which Remus,
by way of jeering at his brother, jumped over the half-built walls of the new settlement,
whereupon Romulus killed him in a fit of rage, adding the threat, ‘So perish whoever else
shall leap over my battlements.’ This, then, was how Romulus obtained the sole power.
The newly built city was called by its founder’s name.5
Conceived in assault, and bathed in fratricide, the walls of Rome rose. The city was populated
like other new cities in antiquity: “...the founder of a new settlement, in order to increase its
population, would as a matter of course shark up a lot of homeless and destitute folk and pretend
that they were ‘born of earth’ to be his progeny; Romulus now followed a similar course: to help
fill big new town, he threw open … a place of asylum for fugitives. Hither fled for refuge all the
rag-tag-and-bobtail from the neighborhood peoples: some free, some slaves, and all of them
wanting nothing but a fresh start. That mob was the first real addition to the City’s strength, the
first step to her future greatness.”6
● Do we have clear documentary support for the founding of Rome?

● Retell the story of Romulus and Remus’ birth, youth, and success.
● How did Amulius create a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Romulus faced two initial problems: organizing his city, and locating enough women to ensure
population growth. The first problem he solved by creating “a hundred senators.” These hundred
he declared “Fathers,” or “Heads of Clans.” This Senate became the initial foundation of the
Patrician class (explained in the next chapter). The more pressing problem was finding wives for
his new citizens. The local cities turned down Romulus’ requests for brides to be sent to the
newly propertied Romans, driving Romulus to use force to solve his dilemma. The nearby
Sabines were curious about the new city, and took Romulus up on his invitation to join the
Romans for “a solemn festival in honor of Neptune. “The majority [of attendees] were from the
neighboring settlements of Caenina, Crustumium, and Antemnae, but all the Sabines were there
too, with their wives and children.” Romulus had his eligible bachelors wait for the right
moment, at which point they kidnapped all unmarried Sabine women. These women were
immediately declared wives of the Romans who would “share all the fortunes of Rome, all the
5
Livy, 36-37.
6
Livy, 40.
privileges of the community, and they would be bound to their husbands by the dearest bond of
all, their children.”7 This moment in Roman history, commemorated in literature, art, and film as
the Rape of the Sabine Women, led to ongoing warfare for the fledgling city.
Romulus had immediate cause to develop the military might of his new city; having angered his
neighbors to solve the marriage crisis in Rome, his reign was consumed with constant warfare
between Rome and surrounding regions. Livy describes Romulus as a strong man of war; in one
battle “Romulus himself cut down their prince and stripped him of his arms, then, their leader
dead, took the town at the first assault. … Magnificent in action, he was no less eager for popular
recognition and applause; he took the armor which he had stripped from the body of the enemy
commander, fixed it on a frame made for the purpose, and carried it in his own hands up to the
Capitol where, by an oak which the shepherds regarded as a sacred tree, he laid it down as an
offering to Jupiter.”8 In this passage, Livy weaves together three themes that resonate throughout
Roman history: military strength, religious piety, and public ceremony. Romulus established the
pattern for the successful Roman leader: military might is ascribed to the gods’ blessing, and the
gods must be honored by sacrifice. This particular sacrifice leads to the building of Rome’s first
temple.
The most significant battle of Romulus’ reign occurred between the Romans and the Sabines.
The Sabines had infiltrated the Roman fortress, determined to take revenge for the kidnapping of
their daughters. Romulus led his army into the city to take back the fortress; Romans and Sabines
were locked in combat when the Sabine women entered the fray:
This was the moment when the Sabine women, the original cause of the quarrel, played
their decisive part. … With loosened hair and rent garments they braved the flying spears
and thrust their way in a body between the embattled armies. They parted the angry
combatants; they besought their fathers on the one side, their husbands on the other, to
spare themselves the curse of shedding kindred blood. ‘We are mothers now,’ they cried;
‘our children are your sons–your grandsons: do not put on them the stain of parricide. If
our marriage–if the relationship between you–is hateful to you, turn your anger against
us. We are the cause of strife; on our account our husbands and fathers lie wounded or
dead, and we would rather die ourselves than live on either widowed or orphaned.’ … A
moment later the rival captains stepped forward to conclude a peace. Indeed, they went
further: the two states were united under a single government, with Rome as the seat of
power. Thus the population of Rome was doubled and the Romans, as a gesture to the
Sabines, called themselves Quirites, after the Sabine town Cures.9
While governmental, military, and masculine power were on display in this scene, the power of
women as wives and daughters brought peace between these two warring states; their actions on
7
Livy, 40-42.
8
Livy, 42-43.
9
LIvy, 46-47.
the battlefield created the conditions for peace in Rome that allowed this city to consolidate its
power, double its population, and (after Romulus’ death) appoint a Sabine as their second king.
Livy recounts two versions of Romulus’ death. In the first, “A cloud enveloped [Romulus], so
thick that it hid him from the eyes of everyone present; and from that moment he was never seen
again upon earth.” The second story is told after the people begin proclaiming Romulus’
divinity; Livy writes that “even on this great occasion there were, I believe, a few dissentients
who secretly maintained that the king had been torn to pieces by the senators.”10 While his end
remains unclear, his legacy comes down through the ages: Romulus established the city of Rome
as a military force with a pragmatic attention to solving problems. He developed the institution
of the Senate, which initially governed Rome in the year before the next king was appointed; he
alienated Rome’s neighbors with his solution to the population crisis of Rome, but eventually
merged Roman and Sabine peoples together under Roman rule; he took the refugees, the
criminals, the underdogs of his region and empowered them to create a new city. At his death,
Rome existed as a city that had the potential to last.
● How did Romulus solve his population crisis?

● Explain the role that women played in creating peace between the Romans and the
Sabines.
● Which explanation most accurately explains Romulus’ death? Why?
The Seven Kings of Rome

- Romulus
- Numa
- Tullus Hostilius
- Ancus Marcus
- Tarquinius Priscus
- Servius Tullius
- Tarquinius Superbus
Section 2: The Other Kings of Rome
Romulus was the first king of Rome; he had six successor kings. Each king added to the
institutions of Rome, and left a legacy. The second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, was perhaps
the most important king during the monarchical period. Numa ruled Rome during its only
sustained period of peace, allowing the city to grow prosperous. He established the religious
customs of Rome, and Rome’s commercial activity. Rome’s final king, known as Tarquinius
10
LIvy, 49.
Superbus, proved such a tyrant that after he was deposed the Roman people rejected the
monarchy, giving rise to the Republican form of government.
Who will lead, who determines the direction of an organization once the founder (or group of
persons) dies? Rome faced that question following Romulus’ death. The charismatic visionary
with the military might to possibly murder his brother and defeat neighboring tribes was gone;
what would come next? Under Romulus, the heads of families had formed an advisory body
called the senate; that advisory body proclaimed what would become the new custom for the
Roman monarchy: an interregnum, a period of time in between kings. Rome at this point was
composed of Romans and Sabines; united through force and kidnapping, each group wanted
supreme rule. LIvy describes the interregnum this way:
“Some form of government there must be; this much was agreed, and, as neither party
would yield, the hundred senators determined to exercise a joint control. They divided
their number into ten decuries, with one man from each as president; these ten performed
the functions of government, though only one carried its insignia and was attended by
lictors. His period of power was limited to five days, and passed to each senator in
rotation. The monarchy was in abeyance for a year, and the period of its abeyance was
known as the interregnum, a term still in use.”11
Eventually, the Senate settled upon Numa Pompilious as the second King of Rome. A Sabine,
Numa was universally recognized as a pious man beloved by the gods.
Before detailing Numa’s personality, accomplishments, and stories, it is worth taking a moment
to note that something important happens in the transition between Romulus and Numa. The
typical pattern in human history regarding transfer of power involves a more powerful leader
conquering a people after the death of a major leader, or the sovereignty of a people being
transferred dynastically. The Romans did something different - they had a separate body of
community leaders who controlled the sovereignty. When the king died, the Senate appointed the
next king. While it took centuries for this practice to become widespread, the development of an
external body that determines the next wielder of “supreme executive authority” resulted in a
stability of Roman governance that did not depend upon the chance of a skilled prince being born
to the current king.
Numa reigned for 37 years, and in his reign he emphasized peace and taming the wild Romans
through religious practices. Livy explains that “Rome had originally been founded by force of
arms; the new king now prepared to give the community a second beginning, this time on the
basis of law and religious observance.”12 Numa’s focus on peace and building institutions gave
Rome a core of practices that cultivated identity in ways beyond warfare. Romulus established
Rome as a military power, but Numa made it a civilization.
11
Livy, 50.
12
LIvy, 52.
His first accomplishment was the building of the Temple of Janus. This temple served as “a
visible sign of the alternations of peace and war: open, it was to signify that the city was in arms;
closed, that war against all neighboring peoples had been brought to a successful conclusion.”
During Numa’s reign, the doors remained closed.
Livy portrays Numa as an astute politician who used religion as a tool to influence the Romans.
Numa pretended to be in nightly conversation with the goddess Egeria; claiming such authority
for his decrees “would prove more effective than anything else with a mob as rough and ignorant
as the Romans were in those days.” Claiming to reveal the will of the gods, Numa created a
series of institutions that endured through the Republic era:
● He established a 12 month lunar calendar

● He fixed business and rest days, “as he foresaw that it would be convenient to have
certain specified times when no measures should be brought before the people.”13
● He appointed priests, and created a separate hierarchy for religious authority under the
pontifex maximus, separating the civil from the religious authority.
Numa’s reign, Livy explains, had the result of preventing many social problems: the Romans
“now had serious matters to consider; and believing, as they now did, that the heavenly powers
took part in human affairs, they became so much absorbed in the cultivation of religion and so
deeply imbued with the sense of their religious duties, that the sanctity of an oath had more
power to control their lives than the fear of punishment for law-breaking.”14 Livy, in describing
Numa’s policies, introduces another perennial question for government: to what source does a
government look to establish order? Romulus and the threat of force represents one answer;
Numa and the fear of the gods represents another answer. From Numa’s reign forward, Roman
law and Roman religion went hand in hand.
● If Romulus founded Rome as a city of war, what did Numa add?

● What role did Roman religion play in Numa’s reign?
● List two accomplishments of Numa’s reign.
The Seven Hills of Rome

- Aventine
- Caelian
- Capitoline
- Esquiline
- Palatine
13
LIvy, 53.
14
Livy, 54.
- Quirinal
- Viminal
Tullus Hostilus followed Numa as king of Rome elected “by the vote of the people, ratified by
the senate.” Livy presents Tullus as the opposite of Numa: “...in his lust for action [Tullus]
surpassed Romulus himself, driven, as he was, along the path of adventure by his grandfather’s
fame and the strength of his own young manhood. In his view, Rome had been allowed to lapse
into senility, and his one object was to find cause for renewed military adventure.”15 Tullus
achieved his desire, and provoked war with Alba Longa. The war was settled in the famous fight
between the Horatii and Curiatii. Each army appointed a set of triplets to fight for them;
whichever had the last brother survive would be counted victor, and that country would rule over
the other. The full story of the duel and its aftermath is included as an appendix to this chapter.
To briefly summarize: Horatius won, and Rome ruled over Alba Longa.
For a time, there was peace between the two nations; after a dubious moment of betrayal by the
Alban commander, Tullus announced, “My purpose, men of Alba–and I pray that it may bring
happiness and prosperity to us all-is to transfer to Rome the entire population of your city. Your
commons shall have Roman citizenship, your nobles the right to be elected senators. We shall be
one city, one commonwealth. Long ago, the Alban people split into two; let them now be
united.”16 Tullus then oversaw the systematic destruction of Alba Longa, a city four centuries
old, and the removal of the populace to Rome.
Doubling the population required expanding Rome: “The Caelian Hill was taken into the city
boundaries; and to encourage building that quarter Tullus chose it as the site of a new palace,
which became from that time forward his official residence. The number of families of senatorial
rank increased by the admissions of the Alban nobility…ten squadrons of Alban Knights were
formed…”17 Tullus’ reign was marked by warfare, and incorporating the conquered peoples into
Rome. He died when his palace was struck by lightning.
His successor, Ancus Marcus, sought to rule Rome like Numa had, valuing peace above all.
Unfortunately for Ancus, Rome’s enemies suspected that after Tullus’ death Rome would
experience a power vacuum. Livy explains that “To the war weary Romans the prospect of
peace seemed assured, and both they and their neighbors began to hope that the new king would
prove a second Numa…but now the Latins felt that they might in the changed circumstances be a
match for their old enemy.”18 Ancus won the war with the Latins, and incorporated them into
Rome. His reign was marked by an unfulfilled desire for peace. As Ancus’ success in war grew,
the population of Rome increased. “One result of these enormous additions to the population was
15
Livy, 55.
16
LIvy, 65.
17
Livy, 66.
18
Livy, 69.
an increase in certain criminal activities; the dividing line between right and wrong becoming
somewhat blurred. To meet this unhappy state of affairs and to discourage the further growth of
lawlessness, the Prison was built in the city center, just above the Forum.”19 Livy closes Ancus’
story with an evaluation: “Ancus reigned twenty-four years. His fame as both soldier and
administrator was unsurpassed by any previous occupant of the throne.”20 Ancus combined the
military force of the Roman monarchy with an administrative ability that built the city through
improved infrastructure.
During Ancus’ reign, a man named Lucomo immigrated to Rome in search of better financial
opportunities. A Greek by family origins, Lucomo lacked the opportunity to rise socially in
Tarquiinii. Lucomo’s wife, Tanaquil, thought that in Rome “there would be opportunities for an
active and courageous man in a place where all advancement came swiftly and depended on
ability.”21 Eager for her husband to rise, she encouraged their move to Rome. In Rome, Lucomo
took a new name: Lucious Tarquinius Priscus. Over multiple years, Tarquin (as Lucomo was
now called) rose to prominence in Rome and became part of Ancus Marcus’ inner circle of
advisors. After Ancus’ death, a few days before the people would vote for the next king,
“Tarquin sent [Ancus’] two boys on a hunting expedition.” Having removed his primary
competition for the throne, Tarquin “is said to have been the first to canvass personally for votes,
and to have delivered a public speech designed to win popular support.”22 Tarquin’s innovations
succeeded; he received a massive popular vote, and was confirmed by the senate as the fifth king
of Rome.
● Retell the story of the Horatii.

● Did the kings of Rome have any connection to a vote from the people?
● Which king wanted peace but had to become good at war?
Tarquin succeeded in his first military campaign, on his return from war against the Latins he
“celebrated public games on a scale more elaborate and opulent than any of his predecessors.”23
Tarquin began building the Circus Maximus, which remained a center for Roman games for at
least a thousand years. Tarquin continued being successful in war, and in peacetime he developed
another strategy to manage the population: “the king set his people with such enthusiasm to
various civic undertakings that they had even less leisure than they had during the wars.”24 Under
Tarquin, Rome acquired a stone wall surrounding the city, the “low-lying areas of the town
around the Forum, and the valleys between the hills, were drained by sewers leading down into
19
LIvy, 72.
20
LIvy, 74.
21
Livy, 73.
22
Livy, 74.
23
Livy, 75.
24
Livy, 77.
the Tiber,” and the foundations for the “temple of Jupiter on the capital were laid.”25 Rome
flourished during Tarquin’s rule.
As Livy tells the tale, something remarkable occurred during Tarquin’s reign. A beggar child in
the palace “named Servius Tullus was lying asleep, when his head burst into flames.” Once
Servius awoke, “the fire went out.”26 Queen Tanaquil determined that they must adopt this
portentous child–”he will one day prove a light in our darkness, a prop to our house in the days
of its affliction. We must see that he is taught and tended from now onward with every care, as
one through whom will come great glory to our family and to Rome.”27 Servius was treated like a
“prince of the blood,” and raised as a son of Tarquin.
Tarquin was assassinated by the sons of Ancus Marcus, but the assassins’ plot did not result in
either of the former princes gaining the throne. Instead, the assassins were caught by the lictors,
and Tanaquil quickly prompted Servius to rule in Tarquin’s stead. “Servius, the throne is yours, if
you are a man. It shall never be theirs who have done this deed of blood. Rise to your true
stature…do as I bid you, and all will be well.”28 Tanaquil announced that the king had been
injured, but not killed; Servius would fill in for him until he recovered. “Servius now began to
appear in public wearing the white and purple robes of royalty and proceeded by lictors; he sat
on the king’s seat of justice listening to suits…for a number of days he concealed Tarquin’s
death, and by making it appear to the public that he was acting merely as the king’s deputy,
continued, in fact, to strengthen his own position.” Ancus’ sons “retired to Suessia Pometia,
where they lived in voluntary exile” after their hired assassins had been arrested. In an effort to
pacify the two sons of Tarquin, Servius married two of his daughters (both named Tullia) to
them. When war threatened, “Servius proved a very able and successful commander…his
position was assured.”29 Servius was the original “fake it until you make it” king of Rome,
revealing that the symbols of power are important. Since people thought he had the authority to
rule, he was able to leverage the appearance into the reality of rule.
As king, Servius’ most significant contribution was organizing the populace into five hierarchical
classes; each class was established by their wealth and ability to supply specific pieces of armor
for military appointment. To discover who had which levels of wealth, Servius originated the
Roman census. By this census “public service, in peace as well as in war, could thenceforward be
regularly organized on the basis of property; every man’s contribution could be in proportion to
his means.”30 Those without enough wealth to be in the lowest class were “exempted from
contributions, and all financial burdens were shifted on the shoulders of the rich.”31 Under
25
Livy, 78.
26
Livy, 78.
27
Livy, 78.
28
Livy, 80.
29
Livy, 81.
30
Livy, 83.
31
Livy, 83.
Servius, Rome continued to grow through military and economic might, with increasing
infrastructure in and around the city. Rumors of illegitimacy plagued Servius’ reign; Tarquin, son
of the deceased Tarquin, made sure that the people of Rome never forgot that Servius “never
received the popular vote.” To “conciliate the goodwill of the commons,” Servius “distributed
land captured in war amongst private holders, and then took the bold step of demanding the
people’s vote upon his title to the throne. He was declared king by an overwhelming and
unprecedented majority.”32
Servius Tullus’ reign was the beginning of the end for the Roman monarchy; Livy spends less
time on Servius’ accomplishments and more on the story of how the monarchy came to an end.
The story below is brief, stripped of the detail and personality LIvy provides. For the full acount,
see Livy’s account of the reign of Tarquin the Proud and the Rape of Lucretia included in the
appendix to this chapter.
● Why was Servius thought to be a “portentous” child?

● Explain what role that royal costuming played in Servius’ ascent to the throne.
● Was Servius a good king? Why or why not?
Servius was overthrown by Tarquin, son of the assassinated Tarquin. He was encouraged to
overthrow Servius by his wife, Tullia, daughter of Servius. Servius died in Tarquin’s attack on
the Forum, and Tullia ran over her father’s corpse with her chariot. Tarquin seized power,
ignoring the convention that the people must vote for, and the senate must confirm, the next
king. He ruled through fear, executing enemies and foreign dignitaries alike. He was successful
in war, but forced citizens to carry out public works projects. Just as popular unrest was brewing,
Tarquin’s sixth son, Sextus, spent the night at the home of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus; Sextus
was filled with lust for Collatinus’ beautiful wife, Lucretia. He invaded her bedroom, threatening
to kill Lucretia if she did not sleep with him. Sextus raped her, and left. The next morning,
Lucretia told her husband and his friend what happened, and killed herself to testify to her lack
of consent. Collatinus, and his friend Lucius Junius Brutus, then swore an oath to take down the
Tarquin family and destroy the monarchy. In short, they succeeded. From that day forward,
Rome had no kings. The Senate then elected two consuls to wield executive authority: Brutus,
and Collatinus.
Conclusion
What to make of the founding story of Rome, and its initial story arc? First, we must keep in
mind that Livy does not make any claim to specific factual accuracy; he is recounting the stories
that have come down through the centuries. These stories show us that by the late Republic the
32
Livy, 86.
Roman mind had no place for kings. Kings were thought to be abusive of power. Pairing pride
with power in the person of Tarquinius Superbus was a deadly combination for Rome. Instead of
a monarchy, Rome would be governed by a Republic that divided powers between the consuls
and the senate. As we will see in the following chapter, many Roman institutions developed out
of this conviction.
Beyond governmental structure, the stories of the monarchy show a city and people forged by
law and citizenship rather than kinship. The Romans conquered and absorbed their neighbors,
and by conferring citizenship they established a pattern that eventually allowed the Republic and
Empire to spread far and wide.
Lastly, the stories of Rome’s monarchical period show the intertwining of three threads. Rome
was a military force from the beginning. Romulus, Tullus Hostilius, and the rest (except Numa)
expanded Rome through military might. Secondly, Rome was focused around religious practices.
The gods were invoked for all things, and the signs of the world around the kings were thought
to communicate the will of the gods. Temples commemorated events, and the kings were thought
to symbolize the rule of Jupiter in an ordered cosmos. Lastly, the stories of the kings of Rome
highlight the formation of institutions which established rule of law in place of individual power.
The formation of the senate, of class divisions, of the duumvirs making decisions in treason
trials - these and other institutions put the legal structures of Rome front and center in the
developement of civilization. Roman citizenship did not depend upon the accidents of birth, but
rather on the law granting rights and status. Military power, religious piety, and legal structures
combined to form a unique city that, during the Republic era, established political and military
control over the Mediterranean world.
● List three lessons that we can learn from the stories of the Roman monarchy.
● What did Rome use as a basis for unity instead of blood kinship?
● How did the events around Lucretia’s death cause the end of the monarchy?
Addenda: Roman Historical Accounts (the closest thing we have to primary sources of the
time)
Excerpts from Plutarch’s Life of Romulus

Text from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Romulus*.html
When Numitor came home, after getting Remus into his hands, he was amazed at the young
man's complete superiority in stature and strength of body, and perceiving by his countenance
that the boldness and vigour of his soul were unsubdued and unharmed by his present
circumstances, and hearing that his acts and deeds corresponded with his looks, 4 but chiefly, as
it would seem, because a divinity was aiding and assisting in the inauguration of great events, he
grasped the truth by a happy conjecture, and asked him who he was and what were the
circumstances of his birth, while his gentle voice and kindly look inspired the youth with
confidence and hope. 5 Then Remus boldly said: "Indeed, I will hide nothing from thee; for thou
seemest to be more like a king than Amulius; thou hearest and weighest before punishing, but he
surrenders men without a trial. Formerly we believed ourselves (my twin brother and I) children
of Faustulus and Larentia, servants of the king; but since being accused and slandered before
thee and brought in peril of our lives, we hear great things concerning ourselves; whether they
are true or not, our present danger is likely to decide. 6 Our birth is said to have been secret, and
our nursing and nurture as infants stranger still. We were cast out to birds of prey and wild
beasts, only to be nourished by them, — by the dugs of a she-wolf and the morsels of a
woodpecker, as we lay in a little trough by the side of the great river. The trough still exists and
is kept safe, and its bronze girdles are engraved with letters now almost effaced, which may
perhaps hereafter prove unavailing tokens of recognition for our parents, 7 when we are dead and
gone."
Then Numitor, hearing these words, and conjecturing the time which had elapsed from the young
man's looks, welcomed the hope that flattered him, and thought how he might talk with his
daughter concerning these matters in a secret interview; for she was still kept in the closest
custody.
But Faustulus, on hearing that Remus had been seized and delivered up to Numitor, called upon
Romulus to go to his aid, and then told him clearly the particulars of their birth; before this also
he had hinted at the matter darkly, and revealed enough to give them ambitious thoughts when
they dwelt upon it. He himself took the trough and went to see Numitor, full of anxious fear lest
he might not be in season. 2 Naturally enough, the guards at the king's gate were suspicious of
him, and when he was scrutinized by them and made confused replies to their questions, he was
found to be concealing the trough in his cloak. Now by chance there was among the guards one
of those who had taken the boys to cast them into the river, and were concerned in their
exposure. This man, now seeing the trough, and recognizing it by its make and inscription,
conceived a suspicion of the truth, and without any delay told the matter to the king, and brought
the man before him to be examined. 3 In these dire and pressing straits, Faustulus did not entirely
hold his own, nor yet was his secret wholly forced from him. He admitted that the boys were
alive and well, but said they lived at a distance from Alba as herdsmen; he himself was carrying
the trough to Ilia, who had often yearned to see and handle it, in confirmation of her hope for the
children.
Romulus was now close at hand, and many of the citizens who hated and feared Amulius were
running forth to join him. 6 He was also leading a large force with him, divided into companies
of a hundred men, each company headed by a man who bore aloft a handful of hay and shrubs
tied round a pole (the Latin word for handful is "manipulus," and hence in their armies they still
call the men in such companies "manipulares."). And when Remus incited the citizens within the
city to revolt, and at the same time Romulus attacked from without, the tyrant, without taking a
single step or making any plan for his own safety, from sheer perplexity and confusion, was
seized and put to death.Although most of these particulars are related by Fabius and Diocles of
Peparethus, who seems to have been the first to publish a "Founding of Rome," some are
suspicious of their fictitious and fabulous quality; but we should not be incredulous when we see
what a poet fortune sometimes is, and when we reflect that the Roman state would not have
attained to its present power, had it not been of a divine origin, and one which was attended by
great marvels.
When the city was built, in the first place, Romulus divided all the multitude that were of age to
bear arms into military companies, each company consisting of three thousand footmen and three
hundred horsemen. Such a company was called a "legion," because the warlike were selected out
of all. In the second place, he treated the remainder as a people, and this multitude was called
"populus"; a hundred of them, who were the most eminent, he appointed to be councillors,
calling the individuals themselves "patricians," and their body a "senate."Now the word "senate"
means literally a Council of elders, and the councillors were called "patricians," as some say,
because they were fathers of lawful children;or rather, according to others, because they could
tell who their own fathers were, which not many could do of those who first streamed into the
city; according to others still, from "patronage," which was their word for the protection of
inferiors, and is so to this day; and they suppose that a certain Patron, one of those who came to
Italy with Evander, was a protector and defender of the poor and needy, and left his own name in
the word which designates such activity. 3 But the most reasonable opinion for any one to hold is
that Romulus thought it the duty of the foremost and most influential citizens to watch over the
more lowly for fatherly care and concern, while he taught the multitude not to fear their superiors
nor be vexed at their honours, but to exercise goodwill towards them, considering them and
addressing them as fathers, whence their name of Patricii.
Lupercalia - For the priests slaughter goats, and then, after two youths of noble birth have been
brought to them, some of them touch their foreheads with a bloody knife, and others wipe the
stain off at once with wool dipped in milk. 5 The youths must laugh after their foreheads are
wiped. After this they cut the goats' skins into strips and run about, with nothing on but a girdle,
striking all who meet them with the thongs,and young married women do not try to avoid their
blows, fancying that they promote conception and easy child-birth. A peculiarity of the festival is
that the Luperci sacrifice a dog also.
A certain Butas, who wrote fabulous explanations of Roman customs in elegiac verse, says that
Romulus and Remus, after their victory over Amulius, ran exultantly to the spot where, when
they were babes, the she-wolf gave them suck, and that the festival is conducted in imitation of
this action, and that the two youths of noble birth run
"Smiting all those whom they meet, as once with

brandished weapons,
Down from Alba's heights, Remus and Romulus ran."
And that the bloody sword is applied to their foreheads as a symbol of the peril and slaughter of
that day, while the cleansing of their foreheads with milk is in remembrance of the nourishment
which the babes received. 7 But Caius Acilius writes that before the founding of the city
Romulus and his brother once lost their flocks, and after praying to Faunus, ran forth in quest of
them naked, that they might not be impeded by sweat; and that this is the reason why the Luperci
run about naked. If the sacrifice is a purification, one might say that the dog is sacrificed as being
a suitable victim for such rites, 8 since the Greeks, in their rites of purification, carry forth
puppies for burial, and in many places make use of the rites called "periskulakismoi;"and if these
rites are performed in grateful remembrance of the she-wolf that nourished and preserved
Romulus, it is not without reason that the dog is slain, since it is an enemy to wolves, unless,
indeed, the animal is thus punished for annoying the Luperci when they run about.
[Romulus] also enacted certain laws, and among them one of severity, which forbids a wife to
leave her husband, but permits a husband to put away his wife for using poisons, for substituting
children, and for adultery; but if a man for any other reason sends his wife away, the law
prescribes that half his substance shall belong to his wife, and the other half be consecrate to
Ceres; and whosoever puts away his wife, shall make a sacrifice to the gods of the lower world. 4
It is also a peculiar thing that Romulus ordained no penalty for parricides, but called all murder
parricide, looking upon one as abominable, and upon the other as impossible. And for many ages
his judgement of such a crime seemed to have been right, for no one did any such deed at Rome
for almost six hundred years; but after the war with Hannibal, Lucius Hostius is reported to have
been the first parricide. So much, then, may suffice concerning these matters.
Excerpts from Plutarch’s Life of Numa Pompilius
Text from: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/numa*.html
For thirty-seven years, now, Rome had been built and Romulus had been its king; and on the
fifth of the month of July, which day they now call the Capratine Nones, Romulus was offering a
public sacrifice outside the city at the so‑called Goat's Marsh, in the presence of the senate and
most of the people. 2 Suddenly there was a great commotion in the air, and a cloud descended
upon the earth bringing with it blasts of wind and rain. The throng of common folk were terrified
and fled in all directions, but Romulus disappeared, and was never found again either alive or
dead. Upon this a grievous suspicion attached itself to the patricians, and an accusing story was
current among the people to the effect that they had long been weary of kingly rule, and desired
to transfer the power to themselves, and had therefore made away with the king. And indeed it
had been noticed for some time that he treated them with greater harshness and arrogance. This
suspicion the patricians sought to remove by ascribing divine honours to Romulus, on the
ground that he was not dead, but blessed with a better lot. And Proculus, a man of eminence,
took oath that he had seen Romulus ascending to heaven in full armour, and had heard his voice
commanding that he be called Quirinus.
…
Numa belonged to a conspicuous city of the Sabines called Cures, from which the Romans,
together with the incorporated Sabines, took the joint name of Quirites. He was a son of Pompon,
an illustrious man, and was the youngest of four brothers. He was born, moreover, by some
divine felicity, on the very day when Rome was founded by Romulus, that is, the twenty-first day
of April. By natural temperament he was inclined to the practice of every virtue, and he had
subdued himself still more by discipline, endurance of hardships, and the study of wisdom. He
had thus put away from himself not only the infamous passions of the soul, but also that violence
and rapacity which are in such high repute among Barbarians, believing that true bravery
consisted in the subjugation of one's passions by reason. 6 On this account he banished from his
house all luxury and extravagance, and while citizen and stranger alike found in him a faultless
judge and counsellor, he devoted his hours of privacy and leisure, not to enjoyments and
money-making, but to the service of the gods, and the rational contemplation of their nature and
power. In consequence he had a great name and fame, so that Tatius, the royal colleague of
Romulus at Rome, made him the husband of his only daughter, Tatia. 7 He was not, however, so
exalted by his marriage as to go to dwell with his royal father-in‑law, but remained among the
Sabines ministering to his aged father. Tatia, too, preferred the quiet life which her husband led
as a private citizen to the honour and fame which she had enjoyed at Rome because of her father.
But she died, as we are told, in the thirteenth year after her marriage.
Then Numa, forsaking the ways of city folk, determined to live for the most part in country
places, and to wander there alone, passing his days in groves of the gods, sacred meadows, and
solitudes. This, more than anything else, gave rise to the story about his goddess. It was not, so
the story ran, from any distress or aberration of spirit that he forsook the ways of men, 2 but he
had tasted the joy of more august companionship and had been honoured with a celestial
marriage; the goddess Egeria loved him and bestowed herself upon him, and it was his
communion with her that gave him a life of blessedness and a wisdom more than human.
…
Numa was already completing his fortieth year when the embassy came from Rome inviting him
to take the throne. The speakers were Proculus and Velesus, one or the other of whom the people
was expected to choose as their king, Proculus being the favourite of the people of Romulus, and
Velesus of the people of Tatius. These speakers, then, were brief, supposing that Numa would
welcome his good fortune. 2 It was, however, no slight task, but one requiring much argument
and entreaty, to persuade and induce a man who had lived in peace and quiet, to accept the
government of a city which owed its existence and growth, in a fashion, to war. His reply,
therefore, in the presence of his father and one of his kinsmen named Marcius, was as follows.
"Every change in a man's life is perilous; but when a man knows no lack, and has no fault to find
with his present lot, nothing short of madness can change his purposes and remove him from his
wonted course of life, which, even though it have no other advantage, is at least fixed and secure,
and therefore better than one which is all uncertain. 3 But the lot of one who becomes your king
cannot even be called uncertain, judging from the experience of Romulus, since he himself was
accused of basely plotting against his colleague Tatius, and involved the patricians in the charge
of having basely put their king out of the way. And yet those who bring these accusations laud
Romulus as a child of the gods, and tell how he was preserved in an incredible way and fed in a
miraculous manner when he was an infant. But I am of mortal birth, and I was nourished and
trained by men whom you know. 4 Moreover, the very traits in my disposition which are to be
commended, are far from marking a man destined to be a king, namely, my great love of
retirement, my devotion to studies inconsistent with the usual activities of men, and my
well-known strong and inveterate love of peace, of unwarlike occupations, and of men who come
together only for the worship of the gods and for friendly intercourse, but who otherwise live by
themselves as tillers of the soil or herdsmen. 5 Whereas, unto you, O Romans, whether you want
them or not, Romulus has bequeathed many wars, and to make head against these the city needs
a king with a warrior's experience and strength. Besides, the people has become much
accustomed to war, and eager for it because of their successes, and no one is blind to their desire
for growth by conquest. I should therefore become a laughing-stock if I sought to serve the gods,
and taught men to honour justice and hate violence and war, in a city which desires a leader of its
armies rather than a king."
With such words did Numa decline the kingdom.
… [Numa eventually relented, and said he was willing to undertake the kingship].
But when the insignia of royalty were brought to him, he bade the people pause, and said his
authority must first be ratified by Heaven. 2 Then taking with him the augurs and priests, he
ascended the Capitol, which the Romans of that time called the Tarpeian hill. There the chief of
the augurs turned the veiled head of Numa towards the south, while he himself, standing behind
him, and laying the right hand on his head, prayed aloud, and turned his eyes in all directions to
observe whatever birds or other omens might be sent from the gods. 3 Then an incredible silence
fell upon the vast multitude in the forum, who watched in eager suspense for the issue, until at
last auspicious birds appeared and approached the scene on the right. Then Numa put on his
royal robes and went down from the citadel to the multitude, where he was received with glad
cries of welcome as the most pious of men and most beloved of the gods.
After taking such measures to secure the goodwill and favour of the people, Numa straightway
attempted to soften the city, as iron is softened in the fire, and change its harsh and warlike
temper into one of greater gentleness and justice. For if a city was ever in what Plato callsa
"feverish" state, Rome certainly was at that time. It was brought into being at the very outset by
the excessive daring and reckless courage of the boldest and most warlike spirits, who forced
their way thither from all parts, 2 and in its many expeditions and its continuous wars it found
nourishment and increase of its power; and just as what is planted in the earth gets a firmer seat
the more it is shaken, so Rome seemed to be made strong by its very perils. And therefore Numa,
judging it to be no slight or trivial undertaking to mollify and newly fashion for peace so
presumptuous and stubborn a people, called in the gods to aid and assist him. 3 It was for the
most part by sacrifices, processions, and religious dances, which he himself appointed and
conducted, and which mingled with their solemnity a diversion full of charm and a beneficent
pleasure, that he won the people's favour and tamed their fierce and warlike tempers. At times,
also, by heralding to them vague terrors from the god, strange apparitions of divine beings and
threatening voices, he would subdue and humble their minds by means of superstitious fears.
…Numa died, not a speedy nor a sudden death, but wasting away gradually from old age and a
mild disorder, as Piso writes. He was something over eighty years old when he died.
Key stories from Livy: Oath of the Horatii (Book I.24-26, from
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0151%3Abook%3
D1%3Achapter%3D27)
It chanced that there were in each of1 these armies triplet brothers, not ill-matched either in age
or in physical prowess. That they were Horatii and Curiatii is generally allowed, and scarcely
any other ancient tradition is better known; yet, in spite of the celebrity of the affair, an
uncertainty persists in regard to the names —to which people, that is, the Horatii belonged, and
to which the Curiatii. The writers of history are divided. Still, the majority, I find, call the Roman
brothers Horatii, and theirs is the opinion I incline to adopt. To these young men the kings
proposed a combat in which each should fight for his own city, the dominion to belong with that
side where the victory should rest. No objection was raised, and time and place were agreed on.
Before proceeding with the battle, a treaty was made between the Romans and the Albans,
providing that the nation whose citizens should triumph in this contest should hold undisputed
sway over the other nation. One treaty differs from another in its terms, but the same procedure is
always employed. On the present occasion we are told that they did as follows, nor has tradition
preserved the memory of any more ancient compact. The fetial2 asked King Tullus, “Dost thou
command me, King, to make a treaty with the pater patratus of the Alban People?” Being so
commanded by the king, he said, “I demand of thee, King, the sacred herb.” The king replied,
“Thou shalt take it untainted.” The fetial brought from the citadel an untainted plant. After this
he asked the king, “Dost thou grant me, King, with my emblems and my companions, the royal
sanction, to speak for the Roman People of the Quirites?” The king made answer, “So far as may
be without prejudice to myself and the Roman People of the Quirites, I grant it.”
The fetial was Marcus Valerius; he made Spurius Fusius pater patratus, touching his head and
hair with the sacred sprig. The pater patratus is appointed to pronounce the oath, that is, to
solemnize the pact; and this he accomplishes with many words, expressed in a long metrical
formula which it is not worth while to quote. The conditions being then recited, he cries, “Hear,
Jupiter; hear, pater patratus of the Alban People: hear ye, People of Alba: From these terms, as
they have been publicly rehearsed from beginning to end, without fraud, from these tablets, or
this wax, and as they have been this day clearly understood, the Roman People will not be the
first to depart. If it shall first depart from them, by general consent, with malice aforethought,
then on that day do thou, great Diespiter, so smite the Roman People as I shall here to-day smite
this pig: and so much the harder smite them as thy power and thy strength are greater.” When
Spurius had said these words, he struck the pig with a flint. In like manner the Albans
pronounced their own forms and their own oath, by the mouth of their own dictator and priests.
When the treaty had been established, the brothers armed themselves, in accordance with the
agreement. On either side the soldiers urged on their champions. They reminded them that their
fathers' gods, their native land, their parents, and all their countrymen, whether at home or with
the army, had their eye only on their swords and their right hands. Eager for the combat, as well
owing to their native spirit as to the shouts of encouragement which filled their ears, the brothers
advanced into the space between the two lines of battle. The two armies were drawn up, each in
front of its own camp, no longer in any immediate danger, but their concern as great as ever; and
no wonder, since empire was staked on those few men's valour and good fortune!
Alert, therefore, and in suspense, they concentrated their attention upon this unpleasing
spectacle. The signal was given, and with drawn steel, like advancing battle-lines, the six young
men rushed to the charge, breathing the courage of great armies. Neither side thought of its own
danger, but of the nation's sovereignty or servitude, and how from that day forward their country
must experience the fortune they should themselves create.
The instant they encountered, there was a clash of shields and a flash of glittering blades, while a
deep shudder ran through the onlookers, who, as long as neither side had the advantage,
remained powerless to speak or breathe. Then, in the hand-to-hand fight which followed,
wherein were soon exhibited to men's eyes not only struggling bodies and the play of the sword
and shield, but also bloody wounds, two of the Romans fell, fatally wounded, one upon the other,
while all three of the Albans were wounded. At the fall of the Romans a shout of joy burst from
the Alban army, while the Roman levies now bade farewell to all their hopes; but not to their
anxiety, for they were horror-stricken at the plight of the single warrior whom the three Curiatii
had surrounded. He happened to have got no hurt, and though no match for his enemies
together, was ready to fight them one at a time. So, to divide their attack, he fled, thinking that
each of them would pursue him2 with what speed his wounds permitted. He had already run
some little distance from the spot where they had fought, when, looking back, he saw that they
were following at wide intervals and that one of them had nearly overtaken him. Facing about, he
ran swiftly up to his man, and while the Alban host were calling out to the Curiatii to help their
brother, Horatius had already slain him, and was hastening, flushed with victory, to meet his
second antagonist. Then with a cheer, such as is often drawn from partisans by a sudden turn in a
contest, the Romans encouraged their champion, and he pressed on to end the battle. And so,
before the third Curiatius could come up —and he was not far off —Horatius dispatched the
second.
They were now on even terns, one soldier surviving on each side, but in hope and vigour they
were far from equal. The one, unscathed and elated by his double victory, was eager for a third
encounter. The other dragged himself along, faint from his wound and exhausted with running;
he thought how his brothers had been slaughtered before him, and was a beaten man when he
faced his triumphant foe. What followed was no combat.
The Roman cried exultantly, “Two victims I have given to the shades of my brothers: the third I
will offer up to the cause of this war, that Roman may rule Alban.” His adversary could barely
hold up his shield. With a downward thrust Horatius buried his sword in the Alban's throat, and
despoiled him where he lay. The Romans welcomed their hero with jubilations and
thanksgivings, and their joy was all the greater that they had come near despairing. The burial of
their dead then claimed the attention of the two armies, —with widely different feelings, since
one nation was exalted with imperial power, the other made subject to a foreign sway. The graves
may still be seen where each soldier fell: two Roman graves in one spot, nearer Alba; those of
the three Albans towards Rome, but separated, just as they had fought.
Before they left the field Mettius asked, in pursuance of the compact, what Tullus commanded
him to do, and the Roman ordered him to hold his young men under arms, saying that he should
employ their services, if war broke out with the Veientes. The armies then marched home. In the
van of the Romans came Horatius, displaying his triple spoils.
As he drew near the Porta Capena he was met by his unwedded sister, who had been promised in
marriage to one of the Curiatii. When she recognized on her brother's shoulders the military
cloak of her betrothed, which she herself had woven, she loosed her hair and, weeping, called on
her dead lover's name. It enraged the fiery youth to hear his sister's lamentations in the hour of
his own victory and the nation's great rejoicing. And so, drawing his sword and at the same time
angrily upbraiding her, he ran her through the body. “Begone” he cried, “to your betrothed, with
your ill-timed love, since you have forgot your brothers, both the dead and the living, and forgot
your country! [5] So perish every Roman woman who mourns a foe!”
Horrid as this deed seemed to the Fathers and the people, his recent service was an off-set to it;
nevertheless he was seized and brought before the king for trial. The king, that he might not take
upon himself the responsibility for so stern and unpopular a judgement, and for the punishment
which must follow sentence, called together the council of the people1 and said: “In accordance
with the law I appoint duumvirs to pass judgement upon Horatius for treason.” The dread
formula of the law ran thus: “Let the duumvirs pronounce him guilty of treason; if he shall
appeal from the duumvirs, let the appeal be tried; if the duumvirs win, let the lictor veil his head;
let him bind him with a rope to a barren tree; let him scourge him either within or without the
pomerium.”
By the terms of this law duumvirs were appointed. They considered that they might not acquit,
under that act, even one who was innocent, and having given a verdict of guilty, one of them
pronounced the words, “Publius Horatius, I adjudge you a traitor; go, lictor, bind his hands.” The
lictor had approached and was about to fit the noose. Then Horatius, at the prompting of Tullus,
who put a merciful construction upon the law, cried, “I appeal!” And so the appeal was tried
before the people.
What influenced men most of all in that trial was the assertion of Publius Horatius, the father,
that his daughter had been justly slain; otherwise he should have used a father's authority and
have punished his son, himself. He then implored them not to make him childless whom they had
beheld a little while before surrounded by a goodly offspring. So saying, the old man embraced
the youth, and pointing to the spoils of the Curiatii set up in the place which is now called “the
Horatian Spears,”4 he exclaimed:
“This man you saw but lately advancing decked with spoils and triumphing in his victory;5 can
you bear, Quirites, to see him bound beneath a fork and scourged and tortured? Hardly could
Alban eyes endure so hideous a sight. Go, lictor, bind the hands which but now, with sword and
shield, brought imperial power to the Roman People! Go, veil the head of the liberator of this
city! Bind him to a barren tree! Scourge him within the pomerium, if you will —so it be amidst
yonder spears and trophies of our enemies —or outside the pomerium —so it be amongst the
graves of the Curiatii! For whither can you lead this youth where his own honours will not
vindicate him from so foul a punishment?”
The people could not withstand the father's tears, or the courage of Horatius himself, steadfast in
every peril; and they acquitted him, more in admiration of his valour than from the justice of his
cause. And so, that the flagrant murder might yet be cleansed away, by some kind of expiatory
rite, the father was commanded to make atonement for his son at the public cost. He therefore
offered certain piacular sacrifices, which were thenceforward handed down in the Horatian
family, and, erecting a beam across the street, to typify a yoke, he made his son pass under it,
with covered head. It remains to this day, being restored from time to time at the state's expense,
and is known as “the Sister's Beam.” Horatia's tomb, of hewn stone, was built on the place where
she had been struck down.
Key stories from Livy: The Rape of Lucretia (I.57-60)
It chanced, as they were drinking in the quarters of Sextus Tarquinius, where Tarquinius
Collatinus, son of Egerius, was also a guest, that the subject of wives came up. Every man fell to
praising his own wife with enthusiasm, and, as their rivalry grew hot, Collatinus said that there
was no need to talk about it, for it was in their power to know, in a few hours' time, how far the
rest were excelled by his own Lucretia. “Come! If the vigour of youth is in us let us mount our
horses and see for ourselves the disposition of our wives. Let every man regard as the surest test
what meets his eyes when the woman's husband enters unexpected.” They were heated with
wine. “Agreed!” they all cried, and clapping spurs to their horses were off for Rome.
Arriving there at early dusk, they thence proceeded to Collatia, where Lucretia was discovered
very differently employed from the daughters-in-law of the king. These they had seen at a
luxurious banquet, whiling away the time with their young friends; but Lucretia, though it was
late at night, was busily engaged upon her wool, while her maidens toiled about her in the
lamplight as she sat in the hall of her house. The prize of this contest in womanly virtues fell to
Lucretia. As Collatinus and the Tarquinii approached, they were graciously received, and the
victorious husband courteously invited the young princes to his table. It was there that Sextus
Tarquinius was seized with a wicked desire to debauch Lucretia by force; not only her beauty,
but her proved chastity as well, provoked him. However, for the present they ended the boyish
prank of the night and returned to the camp.
When a few days had gone by, Sextus Tarquinius, without letting Collatinus know, took a single
attendant and went to Collatia. Being kindly welcomed, for no one suspected his purpose, he was
brought after dinner to a guest-chamber. Burning with passion, he waited till it seemed to him
that all about him was secure and everybody fast asleep; then, drawing his sword, he came to the
sleeping Lucretia.
Holding the woman down with his left hand on her breast, he said, “Be still, Lucretia! I am
Sextus Tarquinius. My sword is in my hand. Utter a sound, and you die!” In affright the woman
started out of her sleep. No help was in sight, but only imminent death. Then Tarquinius began to
declare his love, to plead, to mingle threats with prayers, to bring every resource to bear upon her
woman's heart. When he found her obdurate and not to be moved even by fear of death, he went
farther and threatened her with disgrace, saying that when she was dead he would kill his slave
and lay him naked by her side, that she might be said to have been put to death in adultery with a
man of base condition. At this dreadful prospect her resolute modesty was overcome, as if with
force, by his victorious lust; and Tarquinius departed, exulting in his conquest of a woman's
honour.
Lucretia, grieving at her great disaster, dispatched the same message to her father in Rome and to
her husband at Ardea: that they should each take a trusty friend and come; that they must do this
and do it quickly, for a frightful thing had happened. Spurius Lucretius came with Publius
Valerius, Volesus' son. Collatinus brought Lucius Junius Brutus, with whom he chanced to be
returning to Rome when he was met by the messenger from his wife. Lucretia they found sitting
sadly in her chamber.
The entrance of her friends brought the tears to her eyes, and to her husband's question, “Is all
well?” she replied, “Far from it; for what can be well with a woman when she has lost her
honour? The print of a strange man, Collatinus, is in your bed. Yet my body only has been
violated; my heart is guiltless, as death shall be my witness. But pledge your right hands and
your words that the adulterer shall not go unpunished. Sextus Tarquinius is he that last night
returned hostility for hospitality, and armed with force brought ruin on me, and on himself no
less —if you are men —when he worked his pleasure with me.”
They give their pledges, every man in turn. They seek to comfort her, sick at heart as she is, by
diverting the blame from her who was forced to the doer of the wrong. They tell her it is the
mind that sins, not the body; and that where purpose has been wanting there is no guilt. “It is for
you to determine,” she answers, “what is due to him; for my own part, though I acquit myself of
the sin, I do not absolve myself from punishment; not in time to come shall ever unchaste woman
live through the example of Lucretia.” Taking a knife which she had concealed beneath her dress,
she plunged it into her heart, and sinking forward upon the wound, died as she fell. The wail for
the dead was raised by her husband and her father.
Brutus, while the others were absorbed in grief, drew out the knife from Lucretia's wound, and
holding it up, dripping with gore, exclaimed, “By this blood, most chaste until a prince wronged
it, I swear, and I take you, gods, to witness, that I will pursue Lucius Tarquinius Superbus and his
wicked wife and all his children, with sword, with fire, aye with whatsoever violence I may; and
that I will suffer neither them nor any other to be king in Rome!” The knife he then passed to
Collatinus, and from him to Lucretius and Valerius. They were dumbfounded at this miracle.
Whence came this new spirit in the breast of Brutus? As he bade them, so they swore. Grief was
swallowed up in anger; and when Brutus summoned them to make war from that very moment
on the power of the kings, they followed his lead.
They carried out Lucretia's corpse from the house and bore it to the market-place, where men
crowded about them, attracted, as they were bound to be, by the amazing character of the strange
event and its heinousness. Every man had his own complaint to make of the prince's crime and
his violence. They were moved, not only by the father's sorrow, but by the fact that it was Brutus
who chid their tears and idle lamentations and urged them to take up the sword, as befitted men
and Romans, against those who had dared to treat them as enemies.The boldest of the young men
seized their weapons and offered themselves for service, and the others followed their example.
Then, leaving Lucretia's father to guard Collatia, and posting sentinels so that no one might
announce the rising to the royal family, the rest, equipped for battle and with Brutus in
command, set out for Rome.
Once there, wherever their armed band advanced it brought terror and confusion; but again,
when people saw that in the van were the chief men of the state, they concluded that whatever it
was it could be no meaningless disturbance. And in fact there was no less resentment at Rome
when this dreadful story was known than there had been at Collatia. So from every quarter of the
City men came running to the Forum. No sooner were they there than a crier summoned the
people before the Tribune of the Celeres, which office Brutus then happened to be holding. There
he made a speech by no means like what might have been expected of the mind and the spirit
which he had feigned up to that day.
He spoke of the violence and lust of Sextus Tarquinius, of the shameful defilement of Lucretia
and her deplorable death, of the bereavement of Tricipitinus, in whose eyes the death of his
daughter was not so outrageous and deplorable as was the cause of her death. He reminded them,
besides, of the pride of the king himself and the wretched state of the commons, who were
plunged into ditches and sewers and made to clear them out. The men of Rome, he said, the
conquerors of all the nations round about, had been transformed from warriors into artisans and
stone-cutters. He spoke of the shameful murder of King Tullius, and how his daughter had driven
her accursed chariot over her father's body, and he invoked the gods who punish crimes against
parents. With these and, I fancy, even fiercer reproaches, such as occur to a man in the very
presence of an outrage, but are far from easy for an historian to reproduce, he inflamed the
people, and brought them to abrogate the king's authority and to exile Lucius Tarquinius,
together with his wife and children.
…
When the news of these events reached the camp, the king, in alarm at the unexpected danger, set
out for Rome to put down the revolt. Brutus, who had perceived the king's approach, made a
circuit to avoid meeting him, and at almost the same moment, though by different roads, Brutus
reached Ardea and Tarquinius Rome. [2] Against Tarquinius the gates were closed and exile was
pronounced. The liberator of the City was received with rejoicings in the camp, and the sons of
the king were driven out of it. Two of them followed their father, and went into exile at Caere, in
Etruria. Sextus Tarquinius departed for Gabii, as though it had been his own kingdom, and there
the revengers of old quarrels, which he had brought upon himself by murder and rapine, slew
him.
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus ruled for five and twenty years. The rule of the kings at Rome, from
its foundation to its liberation, lasted two hundred and forty-four years. Two consuls were then
chosen in the centuriate comitia, under the presidency of the Prefect of the City, in accordance
with the commentaries of Servius Tullius.1 These were Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius
Tarquinius Collatinus.
Post Chapter formatting resources (For Winston)
Thales Outcome Tie-Ins

1. Virtuous Leader - which kings could be classified as virtuous leaders, and why? How
does their virtue, or lack of it, help or harm Rome?
2. Competent technical skills - many technical skills combine in the arts of war,
construction, and diplomacy; where in the stories of the kings of Rome do competent
technical skills arise? How do these contribute to building Rome into a powerful nation?
3. Astute problem solving - women feature in Roman history as problem solvers; consider
the wives in the Rape of the Sabine Women, and Tanaquil. What problems did these
women face, and how did they solve them?
4. Dreams and Aspirations to Change the World - COnsider the story of ZRomulus and
Remus; where do you see positive change through a dream? In what way does the
relationship between these brothers illustrate the way unrestrained passion for a dream
leads to harm?
5. Traditional American Values - the American form of government is strongly modeled on

Rome’s governance structure; what foreshadows can you see of American governmental
institutions or cultural patterns already present in the early stories of Roman history?
Topic List for Ch. 1

- The Dream of Rome
- The Founding of Rome
- Romulus
- Numa
- Tullus Hostilius
- Ancus Marcus
- Tarquinius Priscus
- Servius Tulls
- Tarquinius Superbus
- The king is dead, and the Republic is born
Vocabulary List for Ch. 1

- Citizenship - rights and privileges grants to members of a city.
- Fratricide - the murder of a brother.
- Plutarch - Roman historian of the first century AD; author of the Lives, the most
influential collection of ancient biographies in western history.
- Livy - Roman historian of the 1st century BC; author of The Early History of Rome.
- Tacitus - Roman historian of the 1st century AD; author of The Histories and The Annals.
Wrote extensively about barbarian tribes and Roman conquest.
- Suetonius - Roman historian of the first century; author of The Lives of the Caesars, a
collection of the most interesting and possibly reliable biographies of the early emperors.
- Myth - in context of Rome, an historical explanation that has been long believed but is
not based on evidence; often early histories include supernatural myths that reflect a
pre-modern view of the merging of natural and supernatural.
- Moral lessons - ancient historians often built their writings around clear arguments; the
author is trying to show that an action is inherently right or wrong through historical
analysis.
- Supernatural - describing an action that is beyond the realm of nature; ascribing victory to
the gods, having a head spontaneously combust and then interpreted as a sign from the
gods, would both be examples of supernatural events in his historical record.
- Naturalistic - an approach to history that looks to natural explanations that are

scientifically plausible to explain events.
- Senators - initially the first hundred families of Rome, this body grew from advisors to
the king to ultimately controlling the elgisaltive power of Rome during the Republic.
- Edifice - a building.
- Vice - a bad habit condemned by widely accepted custom (mores).
- Virtue - a good habit praised by widely accepted custom (mores)
- Austerity - a chief virtue of the early Roman period; surviving on only what one needed
was thought to reflect a strong, lean character.
- Luxury - a chief vice the emerged as Rome grew prosperous; living in a wealthy manner,
with comfort, was thought to encourage softness of character.
- Vestal Virgin - a priestess role in ancient Rome; women were dedicated to worship of
Vesta, and as such swore a vow of chastity (not having sexual intercourse) for as long as
they tended the scared flame.
- Issue - children
- Palliate - verb meaning to make less severe without removing the cause.
- LUpercalia - An early Roman festival where teenage boys would wear goat skins and
chase each other around town whipping all in their paths with goatskin cords; this festival
is described in PLutarch’s Life of Romulus.
- Tutelary - guardian or patron
- Palatine
- Aventine.
- Augury - a customary way of discerning the gods’ will by interpreting either specific
signs in nature like birds flying overhead, or reading the entrails of a sacrificed animal, as
revealing the will of the gods.
- Sabines - a people who were forcibly united with Rome during the reign of Romulus.
- Dissentients - those who oppose a majority opinion.
- Tyrant - a single ruler who wields total power; after Aristotle, this gains a negative
connotation, meaning that tyrant refers to one who abuses absolute power. Aristotle
argues that the tyrant is the abusing form of the monarch.
- Interregnum - a period of time between reigning kings.
- Lictors - specially appointed officers who would go before the king; the presence of the
lictors communicated the power and authority of the Roman king.
- Sovereignty - the authority of a state to govern itself or another state.
- Janus - Roman god of the new year, typically depicted with two faces. One face looks
back to the old year, and the other faces the new year.
- Pontifex Maximus - highest priestly role in ancient Rome.
- Power vacuum - a phrase deascribing the absence of political rule, often connected to the
saying “Nature abhors a vacuum,” connoting the idea that someone will always be in
charge. If the current ruler is removed, there may be an absence of rule for a time, but
eventually someone will step into the role.
- Circus Maximus - the largest gaming arena in Rome. It became the heart of Roman
racing.
- Portentous - adjective related to portent, or a sign of some future event.
- Convention - a societal custom not written down into a legal code.
- Duumvirs - special officers created to judge Horatius when the king did not want to issue
a death sentence to his popular warrior.
Maps/Paintings list
- Wikimedia Commons Maps of Roman History -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Ancient_Rome
- Map of Alba Longa and the Italian Peninsula -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Ancient_Rome#/media/File:Etruscan_civi
lization_map.png
- Map of Roman expansion -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Ancient_Rome#/media/File:RomanKingd
om.png
- Map showing different cities/ethnicities -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Ancient_Rome#/media/File:Italia_400_B
C.svg
Paintings
- Romulus and Remus
- Coin with Romulus on it:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Romulus_and_Remus_on_Roman
_coins#/media/File:Denarius_C._Memmius_C._F._Romulus.jpg
- Romulus and Remus exposed on the Tiber:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Story_of_Romulus_and_Rem
us_by_Giovanni_Battista_Fontana#/media/File:Romulus_and_Remus_Exposed_o
n_the_Tiber_,_pl_.2_from_the_series_The_Story_of_Romulus_and_Remus.jpg
- Brothers consult the signs:
us_by_Giovanni_Battista_Fontana#/media/File:The_Brothers,_Disputing_Over_t
he_Founding_of_Rome,_Consult_the_Augurs,_pl.7_from_the_series_The_Story_
of_Romulus_and_Remus.jpg
- Death of Remus:
us_by_Giovanni_Battista_Fontana#/media/File:Augurs,_Resort_to_Arms_and_R
emus_is_Killed,_pl.8_from_the_series_The_Story_of_Romulus_and_Remus.jpg
- Wolf statue - th Capitoline wolf -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitoline_Wolf#/media/File:Capitoline_she-wolf_Musei_
Capitolini_MC1181.jpg
- Lupercalia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia#/media/File:Circle_of_Adam_Elsheimer_The_L
upercalian_Festival_in_Rome.jpg
- Rape of Sabine women - (Delacoix’ impressionistic method gives the idea without lots of
nudity) -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Rape_of_the_Sabine_Women_in_painting
s#/media/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Ferdinand_Victor_Delacroix_065.jpg
- Numa + Temple of Janus

- Numa on a coin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numa_Pompilius#/media/File:Numapisocng6371ob
verse.jpg
- Sculpture of Numa -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numa_Pompilius#/media/File:Numa_Pompilius_M
oitte_Cour_Carr%C3%A9e_Louvre.jpg
- Two headed janus -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Janus_(Roman_Forum)#/media/File:Jan
us1.JPG
- Horatii and Curatii

- Oath of the Horatii (David):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_the_Horatii#/media/File:Jacques-Louis_Da
vid,_Le_Serment_des_Horaces.jpg
- HOratius after killing his sister:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatii_and_Curiatii#/media/File:Lagren%C3%A9e
_Horace_venant_de_frapper_sa_soeur.jpg
- Tarquin I - electioneering?
- Consulting the augur:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Tarquinius_Priscus#/media/File:Tarquin_the
_Elder_consulting_Attus_Nevius_the_Augur,_Ricci,_Sebastiano.png
- Tarquin and the Eagle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Tarquinius_Priscus#/media/File:Tarquin_an
d_the_Eagle.gif
- Profile:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Tarquinius_Priscus#/media/File:Tarquinius-
Priscus.jpg
- Servius TUllus - head aflame?

- Profile:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Servius_Tullius#/media/File:Servi
us_Tullius_by_Frans_Huys.jpg
- Rape of Lucretia - Botticelli

- Not botticelli, but a modest
option:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tarquin_and_Lucretia_MET_DP
815229.jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woodcut_illustration_of_the_rape_of_
Lucretia_by_Sextus_Tarquinius_and_her_subsequent_suicide_before_her_husban
d_Lucius_Tarquinius_Collatinus_and_Lucius_Junius_Brutus_-_Penn_Provenance
_Project.jpg
- Suicide:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lucretia_committing_suicide.png
- BOtticell’s The Story of Lucretia (three scenes, with clothes):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Sandro_Botticelli_-_The_
Story_of_Lucretia_-_P16e20_-_Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum.jpg

Chapter 1 - From Dream To A Republic

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Chapter 1 - From Dream To A Republic

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10th History, Ch.

1: From Dream to a Republic 1

Introduction: The Dream of Rome

● Has Rome always lived up the idea of Rome?

The Founding of Rome, and its First King

● Do we have clear documentary support for the founding of Rome?

● How did Romulus solve his population crisis?

The Seven Kings of Rome

Section 2: The Other Kings of Rome

● He established a 12 month lunar calendar

● If Romulus founded Rome as a city of war, what did Numa add?

The Seven Hills of Rome

● Retell the story of the Horatii.

● Why was Servius thought to be a “portentous” child?

Excerpts from Plutarch’s Life of Romulus

"Smiting all those whom they meet, as once with

Down from Alba's heights, Remus and Romulus ran."

Excerpts from Plutarch’s Life of Numa Pompilius

Text from: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/numa*.html

Key stories from Livy: The Rape of Lucretia (I.57-60)

Post Chapter formatting resources (For Winston)

Thales Outcome Tie-Ins

5. Traditional American Values - the American form of government is strongly modeled on

Topic List for Ch. 1

Vocabulary List for Ch. 1

- Naturalistic - an approach to history that looks to natural explanations that are

- Wolf statue - th Capitoline wolf -

- Numa + Temple of Janus

- Horatii and Curatii

- Consulting the augur:

- Servius TUllus - head aflame?

- Rape of Lucretia - Botticelli

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