From Seven Hills to Seven Kings: Rome Before It Was Rome

The Romans believed their city was founded in 753 BCE by Romulus, who killed his twin brother Remus in an argument about which hill to build on. They were probably wrong about the date, the founder, and the fratricide — but not entirely wrong about the location.

Archaeological evidence confirms a settlement on the Palatine Hill dating to around the 10th century BCE. The site made sense: the Tiber River was fordable there, near an island, which made it a natural crossing point for trade routes between the Etruscan cities to the north and the Greek colonies to the south. Rome began as a strategic accident of geography, not a civilization with a destiny.

The early period — what Romans called the Regal period — featured seven kings reigning from 753 to 509 BCE. Most of these kings are legendary figures whose existence archaeology can neither confirm nor deny. What's more interesting is what the legend says about how Romans understood legitimate authority: kings were not inherited rulers but chosen by the Senate and ratified by the people. The authority was never fully personal. It always had to be sanctioned.

The last king, Tarquinius Superbus ("Tarquin the Proud"), was expelled in 509 BCE after his son raped a Roman noblewoman named Lucretia. Whether or not the story is literally true, it was the founding myth of the Republic — the idea that one-man rule was inherently corrupting, that Roman liberty required shared power, and that the threat of tyranny was always one generation away.

That anxiety about kingship shaped everything that came after. When Julius Caesar accepted powers that looked too much like a king's, the Senate killed him. When Augustus accumulated the same powers, he was careful enough to never use the word.

The early Republic organized itself around two annually elected consuls who shared executive power, a Senate of hereditary aristocrats (patricians) who held enormous informal authority, and an increasingly restless class of common citizens (plebeians) who spent the next 200 years demanding representation. The "Conflict of the Orders" — the long political struggle between patricians and plebeians — resulted in a system that was genuinely more inclusive than most ancient polities. Plebeians eventually gained the right to hold all magistracies, including the consulship.

This detail matters. Rome's Republican constitution was not static. It evolved under pressure, repeatedly, to accommodate new groups. That flexibility is part of why the Republic lasted as long as it did — and why its eventual breakdown was so destabilizing.

From Seven Hills to Seven Kings: Rome Before It Was Rome

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