Roman Beliefs

There are very few records of the early kings of Rome and accordingly it is very hard to separate the fact from the fiction. The Romans believed that once Rome was founded there were seven kings that ruled Rome over the period 753 BC until 510 BC. Little is known of the first four kings but there are slightly more historical references about the last three kings of Rome. Below is an outline of the Roman belief's of what occurred during the times of the king

753 - 716 BC: Romulus

The Romans believe that after Romulus founded the city of Rome he then ruled the city and created their social and political institutions. He created the senate and the curiae (an early assembly with legislative powers which included voting to decide who the later kings would be). He set up an an asylum for refugees, runaway slaves, exiles and murderers to encourage people to Rome. As there was a shortage of women for his people he organised the infamous Rape of the Sabines (this is where the Roman men seized the young unmarried woman of the Sabine tribe forcefully away from their families to be their wives). After a brief war with the Sabines, the (formerly) Sabine women interceded and peace was made, the Sabine king Titus Tatius became joint king with Romulus effectively joining the two tribes into one city. Titus died soon after (possibly assassinated) leaving Romulus to reign alone.

Romulus started to make laws for his people and was involved in a number of wars with the neighbouring towns. After a reign of thirty-seven years Romulus apparently vanished when a  thunderstorm wrapped itself around him. It was believed that it was Mars taking Romulus to heaven, he was from then forward worshipped as the god Quirinus.

716 - 715 BC: Interregnum

 After the Disappearance of Romulus there wasn't an obvious replacement for him. There were tensions in the senate as the Sabine's didn't want to have another period without a representative of their people on the throne as they had had for the period after Titus Tatius' death, on top of this the Roman's were not keen to have a foreign king on the throne.

It was decided that the senators would split into ten 'decuries' and one person from each decury would exercise the power of the king for a period of five days when the power would rotate to the next decury. The plebs soon became unhappy with this arrangement as they felt they had one hundred masters rather then one. The senate realised that the plebians were almost ready to insist upon a king and so they decided to let the people vote to decide who would be the next king, the people eventually decided that the senate should pick the king.

It became the custom that after the death of each king that the senate was dissolved and the people then elected the new king, the senate was then reformed (it was customary that the king chose the members of the senate) and passed laws granting the king his regal power. This happened between the death of each later king but the later interregnum lasted for such a short period of time that they will not be mentioned again. 

714-673 BC: Numa Pompilius

Eventually it was proposed that a man from Cures, a Sabine City, called Numa Pompilius was suggested, the Romans weren't particularly happy as he was a Sabine but could think of no other candidate. Though unwilling to be king at first he eventually accepted. He is said to have been a very wise and pious man, and to have taught the Romans the arts of peace and the worship of the gods. He made peace treaties with the neighbours of Rome and Numa is represented in the legends as the founder of the Roman religion, he appointed priests to represent the gods (until then the king had been the main priest for Rome), selected a high priest (pontifex maximus) and chose the first vestal virgins for Rome. He divided the lands among the people, placing boundaries under the charge of the god Terminus. He is also said to have divided the year into twelve months, and thus to have founded the Roman calendar. After a peaceful reign of forty-two years, he was buried under the hill Janiculum, across the Tiber.

673-642 BC: Tullius Hositilius

Tullius Hostilius's reign was of a very different nature then his predecessor, as he was of a warlike nature. The main war that took place during Tullius's reign was against  Alba Longa, eventually it was decided to end the war between the two cities by means of a combat of champions. The three Horatii brothers and the three Curiati brothers fought for their cities  which resulted in favour of the Horatii, the Roman champions, which meant that Alba Longa became subject to Rome. After some supposed treachery from Alba Longa the city was razed to the ground and all its people were transferred to Rome, forming the third tribe of Ancient Rome that was based on the Caelian hill, Tullus built his palace on the Caelian hill in an attempt to encourage people to live there and admitted the Alban patricians into the Roman senate. According to lore, Hostilius warlike behaviour and complete neglect of the Roman gods, led to a plague on the city. In asking for help from an angered Jupiter, Hostilius was struck down by a bolt of lightning.

642-617 BC: Ancus Marcius

After the reign of Hositilius the people elected Ancus Marcius, a Sabine and the grandson of Numa Pompilius. He decided to try and restore the religious rites set up by his grandfather that were neglected by Tullius, he attempted to restore a state of peace in Rome, the Latins however saw this as a chance to try and take some of the Roman territories and so he went to war with them.  He conquered a few of their cities and settled the captives of the wars on the Aventine hill. He added the Janiculum hill on the other side of the Tiber into the city boundaries and extended the city walls to include this hill, finally he had the first wooden bridge (the Pons Sublicius) built across the Tiber to give easier access to the new hill of Rome. This was all done not because Rome needed the space but to stop another tribe from occupying a spot so close to Rome. Ancus also conquered land between Rome and the sea and then connected the Rome to the sea by building the port town of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber.

Modern Interpretation

It is likely that the early kings of Rome, apart from Romulus, existed in name. That being said it seems unlikely that they reigned for the length of time attributed to them (in the case of the later kings it is nearly impossible as Superbus, the son of Priscus came to the throne 82 years after his father did and then managed to reign for another 39 years) and the early kings seem very stylised. Romulus, the first king, creating many Roman institutions like the Senate and the Religions, Numa developing religion fully (implying civilising the roman people) and Hostilius a direct opposite to Numa characterised by his military nature (probably due to nothing more then his name means military enemy in Latin).