Following the cessation of the monarchy with expulsion of the seventh and last Roman king, the Etruscan Tarquinius Superbus in 510/509 B.C., the Roman Republic came into being and flourished until it collapsed during the economic, political and military chaos of the late Republic (133–31 B.C.). Julius Caesar emerged as a military dictator, introducing the autocratic rule which was adopted by his imperial successors. His intentions were thwarted by his assassination by a conspiracy