The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

Ancient sources for the regal period of Rome are
hazy and possibly include a certain amount of fictitious
detail interpolated by later authors. While the
same could be said for most of the historical accounts
of the very early years of the Republic, there
may be a firm basis of archival records documenting
the names of the first consuls, the laws that
were enacted, and the treaties that were made with
other states and powers. Around these documents,
coupled with the traditional tales handed down by
successive generations of the aristocratic families,
historians could hang a fairly credible narr a t i v e ,
but the earliest sources that have come down to us
are Livy’s history and that of Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
both of whom wrote in the first century BC.
The lurid details of the fall of the monarchy portray
the last kings as tyrants, whose evil deeds so
enraged the aristocratic clans that they re b e l l e d ,
f o rcibly expelled the kings, and set up their own
system of government. The tales that have been
p re s e rved re p resent the last king of Rome, Ta rquinius
Superbus, or Ta rquin the Proud, as a
usurper who seized the throne without the approval
of the Senate and the people. He has been claimed
as the son of the previous king but he was more
likely the grandson of the elder Tarquin; his origins
do not really count for or against him, since the
monarchy was elective, not hereditary. Tarquin ably
THE FOUNDATION OF THE REPUBLIC
H i s t o r i c a l Ba c k g r o u n d 51
defended Rome and ensured her supremacy at the
head of the Latin League, and he is credited with
embellishing the city with fine buildings. At home,
however, he ruled without reference to the Senate,
inflicting capital punishment arbitrarily and taking
over estates and properties of his victims. The crucial
moment came when Tarquin’s son Sextus gave
in to his passion for a young woman called Lucretia.
Although she was married, he blackmailed her
into a liaison with him by threatening to spread the
story that he had caught her in an adulterous relationship
with a slave. Lucretia submitted but then
confessed all and committed suicide. Angered beyond
endurance the Romans looked to the stern Lucius
Junius Brutus to lead them in revolt. They expelled
Ta rquin, subverting his troops in the
process. It was not quite the end for Tarquin, since
he kept coming back with his friends and more
troops to try to regain his position. Thwarted by the
famous defense of the bridge by the Horatii, the
E t ruscans under Lars Porsenna failed to take
Rome. Although Ta rquin did eventually rally the
Latins to his cause, he had to wait for several years
for the battle, which occurred at Lake Regillus in
496 or 497 B C. The Romans won, Ta rquin was
wounded, and he retired, renouncing his ambitions,
and from then on the history of the kings of Rome
was at an end.
from government. In 494 bc, the plebs went on strike and removed themselves
from the city, refusing to serve in the army, a ploy that they used on more than
one occ a s i on to obtain what they wanted (Bru n t , 1 9 7 1 ; Mi tch ell , 1 9 9 0 ) . Th e
prolonged struggle of the orders between plebs and patricians resulted eventually
in a rise in status for the plebs, as they gained political power and were fin
a lly ad m i t ted to the Sen a te provi ded that they could dem on s tra te su f f i c i en t
wealth. A new nobility was formed from a blend of the diminishing numbers of
patrician families and the growing number of plebeian notables.
The con s ti tuti on of the Rep u blic was not wri t ten down , and in the stri ct
modern sense of the term it was not a constitution at all. As such, it was most