Summary: The History of Rome by Mike Duncan: Episode 1-4
Hello guys, I've been listening to a history podcast once again, and I hope to summarise what I have learned, at the same time providing you with a narrative so you need not scourge a lot of Wikipedia pages if you are interested in learning more about it.
At the start of the episode, Mike provides a disclaimer: Most of the records about the origin of Roman empire has been lost in a massive fire in Rome in the year 359 B.C (IIRC), so a lot of the accounts are conflicting, and most of the story is constructed from archaeological discoveries.
The story starts with the arrival of Aneas, in Italy who was most probably a Greek. Aneas was the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather of the founder of Rome. (Really, no jesting here).
The city of Rome was founded by Romulus, a king whose story is no short of a biblical one. As the story goes, near about the site of Rome(which was not founded yet) was an existing kingdom ruled by 2 brothers - Numitor and Amuluis. The younger brother Amulius, after his father died, banished the older brother from the kingdom for the throne. He also ordered Numitor's daughter to be a virgin for the whole life.
What could go wrong, right?
As it goes, the daughter of Numitor was raped by someone, and when Amulius confronted her, she said she was impregnated by the god, Mars and that she was still a virgin. LOLOLOL.
She gave birth to twin boys as a consequence. In classic "Roman" style, he ordered the girl and her two children to be executed, the girl by beheading her, and the boys by drowning them in a nearby river.
The girl was now dead, and the order to execute the infants was being carried out. The nearby river was flooded because of the monsoons, and instead of going to the centre of the river, the soldiers responsible decided to leave them on the banks. These boys, unsurprisingly, didn't die, and were found by a passerby shepherd who found a "she-wolf" breastfeeding them milk. The she-wolf was most probably a personification of the shepherd's wife, who was a whore. (Not kidding, this was in the podcast. TOPKEK! ).
The boys then grow into fine and brave young lads, and they defeat some bandits who come to loot their village. The bandits ka sardaar is their grandfather Numitor, and upon learning of the story of the boys who were found by the shepherd, he was convinced that they were his grandchildren.
He then asks them to claim their rightful right of the throne. The boys then defeat Amulius, and decide to establish their new kingdom on the site of the river where they were found. (Apparently, that's good a reason as any).
But, only one king can rule a throne. So long story short, Romulus kills Remus, and founds the then tiny city of Rome.
Romulus has a host of problems - the city is tiny, and has almost no inhabitants to survive and grow into a larger city. Romulus then decides to open his city gates to everyone who wants to enter, including the slaves, rapists, murderers etc. Most of the city is now inhabited by the criminals themselves.
The problems still not go away. Unless Romulus finds a way for the inhabitants to have progeny, the future of Rome will be wiped out in a single generation. This is because the men vastly outnumber the women in the city. Romulus then asks the nearby city of Sabine for intermarriage with their women. The Sabines knowing that most of Rome were of thugs, refuse. Romulus was not disheartened. He plans to organise a festival, and invites the people of nearby cities like Sabine to the festival. The Sabine arrive in droves!
During the festival, Romulus signals the city's populace(surprise surprise!), and the people promptly abduct the Sabine girls, and their parents are driven out of the city. The girls are then raped. (Roman logic: Can't have children? Just rape women. Simple AF)
The Romans then blame the Sabine parents for not allowing inter-marriage which lead to this "event", as a reasoning to the girls/women.
Romulus ruled for 36 years. Even the "death" of Romulus is a mystery. As accounts go, the throne of Rome was engulfed in a storm, and Romulus "disappeared" most probably ascended to heaven, as a god. A more probable thing, however, was that he was murdered by the nobility, who were out of favour with Romulus, but was loved by the people.
Doesn't this sound like a story from the Bible, with immaculate conception and related stories?
There were seven kings of the Monarchical Roman Empire, before it turned into an elective government.
The first was of course Romulus. As Romulus died, there was a period of around 1 year when no single king ruled Rome. The Romans wanted a Roman king, whereas the Sabines wanted a Sabine king. A truce was difficult. Thus, 10 men from the Senate were chosen to rule Rome periodically.
A solution was found after a year - The King would be a Sabine, but the Romans would decide who would it be. They decided on a man called Numa Pompulius. Numa was the son-in-law of Tatius, the Sabine king, but was known for his religiousness and justice. He refused to be the king of Rome, but was persuaded to accept the post later. He didn't even live in Rome when he was elected to be a King. lel.
His reign was to be the most peaceful time in the entire history of Rome.
Numa died of old age.
The successor of Numa was a guy called Tullus Hostilius, who was the opposite of his predecessor. He believed that Numa was unusually lenient with his armies. He wanted to wage wars with his neighbours, and thus he started with the neighbouring Alba Longa. Roman was so peaceful during Numa's reign that all the other neighbouring kingdoms believed that Rome was incapable of attacking any country first because it was very priestly and religious. Tullus even made everyone believe that Rome was being dragged into a war by the Albans!
The Alban king Mettius , thinking it would be a waste to wage a war with the entire army, as the neighbouring Etruscans were waiting for a suitable chance to attack both their kingdoms, and would be better if they could fight one-on-one, and decide the winner. Triplet brothers were chosen from both the sides, and made to fight.(Movie style!)
The Romans win the fight, and the Albans become a vassal state of Rome. (I'd like to thank you for reading this far, it means a lot to me!) A war with Etruscans breaks out soon, and the Albans are called to fight. Mettius orders the Albans to abandon the Romans, and Tullus with his quick thinking rallies the Roman troops by telling them that the Albans were flanking the enemy from the other side. The Romans, pumped up now, win against the Etruscans! Tullus then executes Mettius for perfidy, and orders his soldiers to destroy Alba Longa. Only the temples were unharmed. The population of Alba Longa was assimilated to Rome.
Tullus' death is mysterious too.
> According to Livy, Tullus neglected the worship of the gods until, towards the end of his reign, he fell ill and became superstitious. However, when Tullus called upon Jupiter and begged assistance, Jupiter responded with a bolt of lightning that burned the king and his house to ashes.
He ruled for 31 years.
After Tullius, the Romans elected Ancus Marcius, who was a grandson of Numa. He mostly followed in his grandfather's footsteps, being a religious and peaceful guy, but he had to fight wars to defend his kingdom. Mostly diplomatic, he brought in a lot of neighbouring Latin people into Rome, known as Plebians.(Yes, you read that right - Plebs were the lower class of Rome)
Priscus was an Etruscan, and had emigrated to Rome with his vast wealth because he couldn't get any public office position in Etruria. As he had a lot of wealth, he started donating to the King, and was quickly inducted into the Senate. Ancus even made him a godfather to his sons.
After the death of Ancus, Priscus persuaded the Senate to hold a vote for the king at the time which he had conveniently arranged for the princes to be absent from the Senate in the guise of a hunting expedition. Priscus also increased the number of Senate seats to 200 by adding 100 men from leading minor families of Rome. By adding these 100 people ensured that almost none of his policies would be opposed by the other Senate members since the 100 were indebted to him.
He ordered the construction of Circus Maximus - the largest chariot racing stadium in the History of Rome, which remained an unachievable feat by any other Roman king.
Again, the death of Priscus is very interesting. Letting Wikipedia describe the story better -
Tarquin's death was hidden from the public for a lot of years, and by the time he was officially declared dead, Tullius was coming home from a war, and declared himself a king, with almost no opposition.
This University of Dallas page describes Tullius' story better. (Partly because I'm getting a little tired to type it out)
But the Tarquin was a tyrant. He was remarked as "Superbus", meaning Proud. He ruled almost like a dictator, and suppressed any opposition with ruthlessness. Any nobles who opposed him were dealt with swiftly, so much so that they didn't even publicly condemn him.
At a meeting with the Latin leaders, a Turnus Herdonius warned the people against Superbus' arrogance and asked not to trust the king. Superbus, in turn, paid some slaves to hide swords in Turnus' entourage, and apprehended him with those swords, accusing him of coming to the peace meeting to kill him. He da real MVP. Read more of his atrocities in his [wikipedia page](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Lucius_Tarquinius_Superbus).
Shit finally hit the fan when his son, Sextus, raped a prominent noblewoman. The nobles had organised a dinner to their house. Sextus, true to his partial English meaning, lusted after Lucretia, and raped her after the dinner, and ran away. Lucretia couldn't bear this dishonour, and after narrating this even to her relatives, took her own life with a knife.
The nobles were now enraged.
Thus ended the reign of the Seven Kings of Rome.
One can observe that though not all accounts of the history are true, the Romans were mostly war hungry people who accepted religion, and not the contrary. The succession of kings who believed in War, Religion, War, Religion+War proves this face.
Brutus forced the Romans to swear before Jupiter to denounce monarchy once and for all. This again shows how religion was a part of the Roman lives.
Meanwhile, Superbus made numerous attempts to capture the throne. In one such attempt, he sent a "peace party" to Rome in order to retrieve his personal possessions, but the thing was discovered a coup. The conspirators included two of Brutus' brothers-in-law, and his two sons Titus and Tiberius. The conspiracy was discovered, and the conspirators executed.
Tarquin again sought to retake the throne soon after at the Battle of Silva Arsia, leading Etruscan and his own forces against Rome. Brutus went into the battle in charge of the cavalry, and faced his cousin, Arruns Tarquinius, the king's son. Both charged at each other and met their death at each other's spears.
A 4-year mourning was declared in Rome in the honour of Brutus. After the war, Publius started the construction of his home at the top of a hill. This led to widespread rumours about him setting up the monarchy again by building a fort there. Hearing of this, he ordered a swift destruction of his house in the night, and instead called out the people that he'd build the house at the bottom of the hill if they wanted, effectively shaming everyone who accused him of power.
The then Roman empire was like just any another empire. The social classes were two - the higher class Patricians, and the lower class Plebians. Much like the zamindari system of India, almost all of the land was owned by the Patricians and, and the workers were Plebians. Women had almost no rights in the Roman Empire. Even the lowest of the Plebian men would be shocked at the mention of rights of Women. The Patricians being the wealthy class usually dominated the politics in Rome. Due to the class system, the military power was skewed in the favour of Patricians, who contributed more money in war efforts. There was, of course, a deep discontent even amongst the wealthy Plebians for the Patricians as the military was mostly controlled by Patricians which would safeguard Patrician interests rather than Plebians'.
This was a very short origin story about Rome, and there are a lot of Episodes of the podcast remaining, which I hope to complete sometime. I will post updates/summaries of any further episodes I listen to. Sorry for the grammatical mistakes, I wrote this in a single sitting, and now I'm too tired to edit.
Thanks for reading! :)
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| Colosseum |
Episode 1: In the Beginning
Welcome to The History of Rome, a weekly series tracing the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Today we will hear the mythical origin story of Rome and compare it with modern historical and archaeological evidence. How much truth is wrapped up in the legend? We end this week with the death of Remus and the founding of Rome.
At the start of the episode, Mike provides a disclaimer: Most of the records about the origin of Roman empire has been lost in a massive fire in Rome in the year 359 B.C (IIRC), so a lot of the accounts are conflicting, and most of the story is constructed from archaeological discoveries.
The story starts with the arrival of Aneas, in Italy who was most probably a Greek. Aneas was the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather of the founder of Rome. (Really, no jesting here).
The city of Rome was founded by Romulus, a king whose story is no short of a biblical one. As the story goes, near about the site of Rome(which was not founded yet) was an existing kingdom ruled by 2 brothers - Numitor and Amuluis. The younger brother Amulius, after his father died, banished the older brother from the kingdom for the throne. He also ordered Numitor's daughter to be a virgin for the whole life.
What could go wrong, right?
As it goes, the daughter of Numitor was raped by someone, and when Amulius confronted her, she said she was impregnated by the god, Mars and that she was still a virgin. LOLOLOL.
She gave birth to twin boys as a consequence. In classic "Roman" style, he ordered the girl and her two children to be executed, the girl by beheading her, and the boys by drowning them in a nearby river.
The girl was now dead, and the order to execute the infants was being carried out. The nearby river was flooded because of the monsoons, and instead of going to the centre of the river, the soldiers responsible decided to leave them on the banks. These boys, unsurprisingly, didn't die, and were found by a passerby shepherd who found a "she-wolf" breastfeeding them milk. The she-wolf was most probably a personification of the shepherd's wife, who was a whore. (Not kidding, this was in the podcast. TOPKEK! ).
The boys then grow into fine and brave young lads, and they defeat some bandits who come to loot their village. The bandits ka sardaar is their grandfather Numitor, and upon learning of the story of the boys who were found by the shepherd, he was convinced that they were his grandchildren.
He then asks them to claim their rightful right of the throne. The boys then defeat Amulius, and decide to establish their new kingdom on the site of the river where they were found. (Apparently, that's good a reason as any).
But, only one king can rule a throne. So long story short, Romulus kills Remus, and founds the then tiny city of Rome.
Episode 2: Youthful Indiscretions
Last time we discussed the events that lead to the birth of Rome, covering the arrival of Aeneas in Italy and the story of the twins Romulus and Remus. Today we will cover the remainder of Romulus's life, his questionable morality and ultimate disappearance from the world of men.
Romulus has a host of problems - the city is tiny, and has almost no inhabitants to survive and grow into a larger city. Romulus then decides to open his city gates to everyone who wants to enter, including the slaves, rapists, murderers etc. Most of the city is now inhabited by the criminals themselves.
The problems still not go away. Unless Romulus finds a way for the inhabitants to have progeny, the future of Rome will be wiped out in a single generation. This is because the men vastly outnumber the women in the city. Romulus then asks the nearby city of Sabine for intermarriage with their women. The Sabines knowing that most of Rome were of thugs, refuse. Romulus was not disheartened. He plans to organise a festival, and invites the people of nearby cities like Sabine to the festival. The Sabine arrive in droves!
During the festival, Romulus signals the city's populace(surprise surprise!), and the people promptly abduct the Sabine girls, and their parents are driven out of the city. The girls are then raped. (Roman logic: Can't have children? Just rape women. Simple AF)
The Romans then blame the Sabine parents for not allowing inter-marriage which lead to this "event", as a reasoning to the girls/women.
Interesting Fact:
Use of the word "rape" comes from the conventional translation of the Latin word used in the ancient accounts of the incident: raptio.This rape of Sabine women led to a lot of wars in the aftermath. Unsurprisingly, the Romans win almost all the wars because they were thugs. Paraphrasing some content from Wikipedia, which was not mentioned in the podcast.
Outraged at the occurrence, the king of the Caeninenses entered upon Roman territory with his army. Romulus and the Romans met the Caeninenses in battle, killed their king, and routed their army. Romulus later attacked Caenina and took it upon the first assault. Returning to Rome, he dedicated a temple to Jupiter.
At the same time, the army of the Antemnates invaded Roman territory. The Romans retaliated, and the Antemnates were defeated in battle and their town captured.
The Crustumini also started a war, but they too were defeated and their town captured.The Sabines then declare a war under their king, Titus Taitus and almost defeat the Romans. (Again, lifting massive blocks of text from Wikipedia, because for the one time, Wikipedia has a narrative of the story there.)
Roman colonists subsequently were sent to Antemnae and Crustumerium by Romulus, and many citizens of those towns also migrated to Rome (particularly the families of the captured women).
The Sabines themselves finally declared war, led into battle by their king, Titus Tatius. Tatius almost succeeded in capturing Rome, thanks to the treason of Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, Roman governor of the citadel on the Capitoline Hill. She opened the city gates for the Sabines in return for "what they bore on their arms", thinking she would receive their golden bracelets. Instead, the Sabines crushed her to death with their shields, and her body was thrown from a rock known ever since by her name, the Tarpeian Rock. (Seems the Romans were'nt the only evil guys here)
The Romans attacked the Sabines, who now held the citadel.After a point, the women who had been kidnapped and raped intervened themselves to stop the war, with a quote going:
[They], from the outrage on whom the war originated, with hair dishevelled and garments rent, the timidity of their sex being overcome by such dreadful scenes, had the courage to throw themselves amid the flying weapons, and making a rush across, to part the incensed armies, and assuage their fury; imploring their fathers on the one side, their husbands on the other,
"that as fathers-in-law and sons-in-law they would not contaminate each other with impious blood, nor stain their offspring with parricide, the one their grandchildren, the other their children. If you are dissatisfied with the affinity between you, if with our marriages, turn your resentment against us; we are the cause of war, we of wounds and of bloodshed to our husbands and parents. It were better that we perish than live widowed or fatherless without one or other of you."
The battle came to an end, and the Sabines agreed to unite in one nation with the Romans. Titus Tatius jointly ruled with Romulus until Tatius's death five years later.
Romulus ruled for 36 years. Even the "death" of Romulus is a mystery. As accounts go, the throne of Rome was engulfed in a storm, and Romulus "disappeared" most probably ascended to heaven, as a god. A more probable thing, however, was that he was murdered by the nobility, who were out of favour with Romulus, but was loved by the people.
Doesn't this sound like a story from the Bible, with immaculate conception and related stories?
Episode 3A: The Seven Kings of Rome
This week we cover the first three of Romulus's successors to the throne: Numa Pompulius, Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Marcius, who they were and what affect they had on the evolution Roman law and culture.
There were seven kings of the Monarchical Roman Empire, before it turned into an elective government.
The first was of course Romulus. As Romulus died, there was a period of around 1 year when no single king ruled Rome. The Romans wanted a Roman king, whereas the Sabines wanted a Sabine king. A truce was difficult. Thus, 10 men from the Senate were chosen to rule Rome periodically.
A solution was found after a year - The King would be a Sabine, but the Romans would decide who would it be. They decided on a man called Numa Pompulius. Numa was the son-in-law of Tatius, the Sabine king, but was known for his religiousness and justice. He refused to be the king of Rome, but was persuaded to accept the post later. He didn't even live in Rome when he was elected to be a King. lel.
His reign was to be the most peaceful time in the entire history of Rome.
He constructed a new temple to Janus and, after establishing peace with Rome's neighbours, closed the doors of the temple to indicate a state of peace. They remained closed for the rest of his reign.The doors would be the last time in the history of Rome to be closed during the reign of a king. By infusing religion in his people, he nullified the negative energies of his armies which usually happens in peace time. He was the most influential king which lead to Rome being religious for the rest of world history. He also established the office of Pontifex Maximus, which was the highest priest of the State religion. This position was elected independently without the influence of King/Senate, thus separating the religion from the state.
Interesting Fact:
Numa reformed the Roman calendar by adjusting it for the solar and lunar year, as well as by adding the months of January and February to bring the total number of months to twelve.
Numa died of old age.
The successor of Numa was a guy called Tullus Hostilius, who was the opposite of his predecessor. He believed that Numa was unusually lenient with his armies. He wanted to wage wars with his neighbours, and thus he started with the neighbouring Alba Longa. Roman was so peaceful during Numa's reign that all the other neighbouring kingdoms believed that Rome was incapable of attacking any country first because it was very priestly and religious. Tullus even made everyone believe that Rome was being dragged into a war by the Albans!
The Alban king Mettius , thinking it would be a waste to wage a war with the entire army, as the neighbouring Etruscans were waiting for a suitable chance to attack both their kingdoms, and would be better if they could fight one-on-one, and decide the winner. Triplet brothers were chosen from both the sides, and made to fight.(Movie style!)
The Romans win the fight, and the Albans become a vassal state of Rome. (I'd like to thank you for reading this far, it means a lot to me!) A war with Etruscans breaks out soon, and the Albans are called to fight. Mettius orders the Albans to abandon the Romans, and Tullus with his quick thinking rallies the Roman troops by telling them that the Albans were flanking the enemy from the other side. The Romans, pumped up now, win against the Etruscans! Tullus then executes Mettius for perfidy, and orders his soldiers to destroy Alba Longa. Only the temples were unharmed. The population of Alba Longa was assimilated to Rome.
Tullus' death is mysterious too.
> According to Livy, Tullus neglected the worship of the gods until, towards the end of his reign, he fell ill and became superstitious. However, when Tullus called upon Jupiter and begged assistance, Jupiter responded with a bolt of lightning that burned the king and his house to ashes.
He ruled for 31 years.
After Tullius, the Romans elected Ancus Marcius, who was a grandson of Numa. He mostly followed in his grandfather's footsteps, being a religious and peaceful guy, but he had to fight wars to defend his kingdom. Mostly diplomatic, he brought in a lot of neighbouring Latin people into Rome, known as Plebians.(Yes, you read that right - Plebs were the lower class of Rome)
Episode 3B: The Seven Kings of Rome
The last days of the Roman Kingdom were ruled over by the three members of the so-called Tarquin Dynasty: Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus. The last proved to be such a tyrant that he was overthrown and monarchy was forever outlawed by the Romans.
Priscus was an Etruscan, and had emigrated to Rome with his vast wealth because he couldn't get any public office position in Etruria. As he had a lot of wealth, he started donating to the King, and was quickly inducted into the Senate. Ancus even made him a godfather to his sons.
After the death of Ancus, Priscus persuaded the Senate to hold a vote for the king at the time which he had conveniently arranged for the princes to be absent from the Senate in the guise of a hunting expedition. Priscus also increased the number of Senate seats to 200 by adding 100 men from leading minor families of Rome. By adding these 100 people ensured that almost none of his policies would be opposed by the other Senate members since the 100 were indebted to him.
He ordered the construction of Circus Maximus - the largest chariot racing stadium in the History of Rome, which remained an unachievable feat by any other Roman king.
Again, the death of Priscus is very interesting. Letting Wikipedia describe the story better -
Tarquin is said to have reigned for thirty-eight years. According to legend, the sons of his predecessor, Ancus Marcius, believed that the throne should have been theirs. They arranged the king's assassination, disguised as a riot, during which Tarquin received a fatal blow to the head. However, the queen, Tanaquil, gave out that the king was merely wounded, and took advantage of the confusion to establish Servius Tullius as regent; when the death of Tarquin was confirmed, Tullius became king, in place of Marcius' sons, or those of Tarquin.
Tarquin's death was hidden from the public for a lot of years, and by the time he was officially declared dead, Tullius was coming home from a war, and declared himself a king, with almost no opposition.
This University of Dallas page describes Tullius' story better. (Partly because I'm getting a little tired to type it out)
Servius' greatest act as king was the creation of a class structure. He organized the classes upon the armor each man could afford. The poor were relieved of their military burden, placing the onus upon the wealthy. In return, Servius gave the wealthy more political power. If a vote was needed, only the wealthy class would vote at first. If a majority could not be reached, then the next class would vote. The effect of this was that rarely would the poorer classes of men have a say in their government.Can make a masale-daar movie on this story. Ask Vishal Bhardwaj.
Despite all of his success, Servius was still the son of a slave. Now old enough to rule, the two true sons of Tarquinius Priscus had at least some right to make a claim for the throne. Forseeing this problem, early on in his reign he had married his two daughters to the two sons Tarquinius Priscus.
The younger son, Arruns, was a man of little ambition. His wife Tullia, the younger daughter of Servius, had a great deal. The older son Tarquin loathed Servius, since he he felt that he should have been the heir to his father's throne. His wife, the older Tullia, loved her father very much.
The younger Tullia and the older Tarquin began to conspire together. Before they could act against the king, Tullia decided that they must get rid of their partners. After the deaths of Arruns and the older Tullia, Tarquin and Tullia got married, and the two began to plot against the king.
Servius was by this time an old man, unable to defend himself. Tullia constantly goaded her husband to act now and not wait until the old man died. At last, Tarquin could take no more of his wife's nagging. Surrounded by armed guards, Tarquin went into the senate and sat down upon the king's throne. He then summoned all the senators to convene the senate. Even those who did not support him did as they were told, since they knew that the old king Servius was doomed.
Tarquin began to speak to the senators, reminding them of how Servius, a mere slave, had not been elected, but had merely usurped his father's throne. While he was speaking, Servius appeared at the back of the senate. The two factions began to argue. Unable to turn back now, Tarquin picked up the old man, carried him out of the senate, and threw him down the steps and into the street.
Stunned, Servius picked himself up and tried to flee, but he was soon killed by two of Tarquin's men. Then, Tullia arrived in a carriage. Pulling up before the senate, she declared her husband as the new king. Apparently worried for her safety, Tarquin told her to go home. On the way, she came across the dead body of her father. Cruelly, she ran over the corpse, splattering blood upon her clothes.
But the Tarquin was a tyrant. He was remarked as "Superbus", meaning Proud. He ruled almost like a dictator, and suppressed any opposition with ruthlessness. Any nobles who opposed him were dealt with swiftly, so much so that they didn't even publicly condemn him.
At a meeting with the Latin leaders, a Turnus Herdonius warned the people against Superbus' arrogance and asked not to trust the king. Superbus, in turn, paid some slaves to hide swords in Turnus' entourage, and apprehended him with those swords, accusing him of coming to the peace meeting to kill him. He da real MVP. Read more of his atrocities in his [wikipedia page](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Lucius_Tarquinius_Superbus).
Shit finally hit the fan when his son, Sextus, raped a prominent noblewoman. The nobles had organised a dinner to their house. Sextus, true to his partial English meaning, lusted after Lucretia, and raped her after the dinner, and ran away. Lucretia couldn't bear this dishonour, and after narrating this even to her relatives, took her own life with a knife.
The nobles were now enraged.
Four men, led by Lucius Junius Brutus, and including Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, Publius Valerius Poplicola, and Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus incited a revolution that deposed and expelled Tarquinius and his family from Rome in 509 BC.
Thus ended the reign of the Seven Kings of Rome.
One can observe that though not all accounts of the history are true, the Romans were mostly war hungry people who accepted religion, and not the contrary. The succession of kings who believed in War, Religion, War, Religion+War proves this face.
Episode 4: The Public Thing
The monarchy had been overthrown and the Roman Republic was now established. Despite the appearance of a free democratic republic, the Romans were beset with economic and political divisions that threatened the unity of the young State.Brutus and Collatinus were made the first consuls of the Roman Republic. However, being a Tarquin in the name, Collatinus was forced to resign, and his FIL, Publius Valerius Publicola was made the consul. The office of consuls was of a one year term, the idea being that all power was not in the hands of a single person now, as the other consul could veto him.
Brutus forced the Romans to swear before Jupiter to denounce monarchy once and for all. This again shows how religion was a part of the Roman lives.
Meanwhile, Superbus made numerous attempts to capture the throne. In one such attempt, he sent a "peace party" to Rome in order to retrieve his personal possessions, but the thing was discovered a coup. The conspirators included two of Brutus' brothers-in-law, and his two sons Titus and Tiberius. The conspiracy was discovered, and the conspirators executed.
Tarquin again sought to retake the throne soon after at the Battle of Silva Arsia, leading Etruscan and his own forces against Rome. Brutus went into the battle in charge of the cavalry, and faced his cousin, Arruns Tarquinius, the king's son. Both charged at each other and met their death at each other's spears.
A 4-year mourning was declared in Rome in the honour of Brutus. After the war, Publius started the construction of his home at the top of a hill. This led to widespread rumours about him setting up the monarchy again by building a fort there. Hearing of this, he ordered a swift destruction of his house in the night, and instead called out the people that he'd build the house at the bottom of the hill if they wanted, effectively shaming everyone who accused him of power.
The then Roman empire was like just any another empire. The social classes were two - the higher class Patricians, and the lower class Plebians. Much like the zamindari system of India, almost all of the land was owned by the Patricians and, and the workers were Plebians. Women had almost no rights in the Roman Empire. Even the lowest of the Plebian men would be shocked at the mention of rights of Women. The Patricians being the wealthy class usually dominated the politics in Rome. Due to the class system, the military power was skewed in the favour of Patricians, who contributed more money in war efforts. There was, of course, a deep discontent even amongst the wealthy Plebians for the Patricians as the military was mostly controlled by Patricians which would safeguard Patrician interests rather than Plebians'.
This was a very short origin story about Rome, and there are a lot of Episodes of the podcast remaining, which I hope to complete sometime. I will post updates/summaries of any further episodes I listen to. Sorry for the grammatical mistakes, I wrote this in a single sitting, and now I'm too tired to edit.
Thanks for reading! :)
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