Roman Kingdom

The Roman Kingdom was the earliest period of the ancient Roman state, beginning, according to tradition, with the city's founding around 753 BC, with settlements around the Palatine Hill along the river Tiber in central Italy, and ending with the overthrow of the kings and the establishment of the Roman Republic around 509 BC. Little is certain about the kingdom's history, as no records and few inscriptions from the time of the kings have survived; the accounts written during the Republic and the Empire are thought largely to embellish the period, and the seven kings of the tradition — from Romulus, the city's founder, to the overthrown Tarquinius Superbus — must be read with care. The kings following Romulus were elected by the people of Rome to serve for life, and did not rely upon military force to gain or keep the throne; the only king to break fully with this tradition was Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, whose expulsion gave the Republic its founding myth. Under the monarchy Rome grew from a hill settlement into the master of the lower Tiber, laying out the temples, assemblies and walls that the later city inherited.