Some countries started on the wrong foot with kings and
aristocracy… but only until the people decided that they can govern themselves
quite well without the expense of inherited privileges…
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| Ancient road up the Capitoline Hill |
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| Excavations in Trajan's Forum |
The
second king was Numa Pompilius, a Sabine who ruled from 715-673 BC. After the
energetic a warring king Romulus, Numa Pompilius was something of a relief. His
main worry was, to get his rough subjects into some kind of gentler frame of
mind. Therefore he is credited with establishing the state religious rites and
priestly offices like flamines and pontifices, house of Vestal Virgins,
building temples and other pious deeds. In order that the people don’t sneer at
all this religious fervor, he announced, that he meets nights with the nymph Egeria,
residing on the Caelius hill, and she gives him pointers about religion and
worship of the gods. He must have been meeting with someone at night to
substantiate his story, though a nymph is doubtful.
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| The Roman She-Wolf |
Numa Pompilius died peacefully in his old age, but that
is not true of his successor, Tullius Hostilius. Hostilius decided that Rome lapsed into senility, and his
neighbours were busily plotting to take Rome over. To discourage such an idea,
Hostilius renewed military readiness. To increase the population of Rome, he
asked the good people of Alba Longa to join the Romans. Alba Longans declined
this honour. Biiig mistake. Alba Longa
was destroyed, and then the population was deported to Rome as new
citizens. Hostilius had one big fault, that is, he neglected to keep the
contract with the gods, instituted by Numa Pompilius. Therefore, in the usual
manner of vengeful ancient gods, they sent a plague on Rome. Hostilius suddenly remembered the gods, but
too late. He was struck down by a bolt of lightning.
The plague and the unhappy fate of Tullius Hostilius
prompted the Senate to get a king less energetic in war and more energetic in
revering the gods. In 640 BC the Senate chose Ancus Marcius, the grandson of
Numa Pompilius as a king, reasoning (without even knowing about DNA, but still
believing in heredity) that Marcius’s election as a king will appease the gods.
Ancus Marcius struck a balance between religious, military and administrative
duties. To protect the salt works at the mouth of the Tiber, he is credited
with founding the port of Ostia, and also with building the first bridge across
the Tiber, Pons Sublicius, the Wooden Bridge. Growing Rome was a temptation to
surrounding Latin tribes, but Ancus Marcius beat them, and they invented the
adage ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ and became the citizens of Rome.
Ancus Marcius died natural death like his grandfather in
616 BC, proving thus to the senators, that they chose well. Tarquinius Priscus was a guardian of the
sons of Ancus Marcius, but after Marcius’s death he sent them away and
convinced the Senate to name him the king. Tarquinius Priscus was originally
Etruscan, and that was in the past interpreted that Etruscans took Rome over.
However, as noted above, Rome was not a seat of one tribe, or one nationality,
but a mixture, a hodgepodge of different peoples, coming from all over central
Italy, and undoubtedly some Etruscans among them (Vicus Tuscus is still an
extant street, leading from the Forum between the Palatine and the Capitol
where originally the Etruscan inhabitants of Rome lived).
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| Model of Regia, the house of Roman kings |
Tarquinius Priscus is credited with a lot of public
works, the main one being draining of the swampy area between the Capitol and
Palatine hills. The first part of Cloaca Maxima, or the Great Sewer gave birth
to Forum Romanum, the center of the Roman world. To get funds for the building
program, some more Sabine and Latin tribes became Roman citizens through
forcible means, and Tarquinius is credited with instituting the tradition of
celebrating triumph for victorious generals. During this busy period,
Tarquinius did not notice that the sons of Ancus Marcius grew up, and was
sincerely surprised by his own assassination in 579 BC.
The sixth king of Rome was Servius Tullius. He
is credited with further division of citizens into classes according to their
property and with the building of the temple of Diana on the Aventine hill,
which was at the time outside of the city.
He also did not die a peaceful death but was killed by his daughter
Tullia and her husband Tarquinius. There is a dark legend, that the wild Tullia
rode over her dying father in a war chariot in the Forum and on the
steps of the Regia, the house of the king in 534 BC.
Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Proud/Arrogant) realized
that his ascension to kingship was not exactly according to the constitution of
Servius Tullius, and decided that playing with constitutions, senators,
approval of the plebs and other niceties was outdated. The malcontents mumbling
something about laws and constitution and gods and other such unpleasantnesses
were either killed or exiled. To keep Romans busy, Tarquinius embarked on
military adventures, and also to get some loot to keep his followers happy,
since he could not rely on law to keep people in order.
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