The Republic’s Origins

Ancient sources (detailed below, but most notably Livy) present the shift from monarchy to republic as part of the drama of the Tarquin family. According to this tradition, L. Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Proud) seized the throne after murdering his father-in-law, Servius. He ruled as a tyrant from 534 bc until the patricians overthrew him in 509 bc. The revolt was prompted by the rape of Lucretia (the wife of a royal kinsman) by king’s second son, and her subsequent suicide. (Cornell provides a family tree as presented by Fabius Pictor, the first Roman historian; Beginnings, 123). In place of the monarchy, the aristocrats established a republican government under two annually elected consuls.

Modern scholars have raised questions about the historicity of this traditional account. Some suggest that main characters like Lucretia and Lars Porsenna might not have existed at all (Alföldi, Early Rome, 84; Werner, Beginn Republik, 377–86). Some scholars believe the transition to a republic was not a drastic change, but a gradual process, with successive forms of republican magistracy introduced until the consular system finally took hold (compare Cornell, Beginnings, 215–41; Brunt, Social Conflicts; and Raaflaub, Social Struggles). Brunt accepts the traditional history (Brunt, Social Conflicts, 44), whereas Cornell proposes the tradition is accurate only in that a revolution around 500 bc created the Roman Republic.