King of Rome

I did.

We left off with Servius Tullius, the son-in-law of Tarquinius Priscus, becoming the sixth king of Rome.

Let's see how he gets on!

Wait!

But what about the Roman Kingdom, the earliest period from Rome's long and rich history? Unfortunately, Romans from the Regno period were not the detailed record keepers that their descendants would become, so most of that history is based on legends and oral traditions.

Today we're going to take a look at Lucinius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome.

We will be examining his family heritage and the many, many murderous plots that first caused his rise to power and later his downfall, which not only represented the end of his reign, but the end of the entire Roman monarchy and the birth of the Republic.

Before we get to Tarquin, we should look briefly at the Roman Kingdom itself as a whole, as a part of history that is often overlooked.

Whenever a king died, Rome entered a brief period called an interregnum, where the Senate had the power.

They then chose one among them and named him interrex, and his duty was to serve as a provisional ruler, ensuring that the transition to the next king went smoothly.

Each interrex could only serve five days after which he was replaced by another senator he had the power to nominate a new king and presented them before the curate assembly which decided whether or not they had the right stuff for the throne a religious ceremony followed to ensure that the candidate also had the approval of the gods and afterwards there was the final vote to see if this candidate would become the new king of rome Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was born sometime around the mid-6th century BC.

Assuming that our knowledge of the seven kings is accurate, he was the only one who was actually descended from one of the previous rulers.

So if you'll recall from last week, [laughs] um, and from our 10,000 episodes that we've done on Coriolanus, everyone's favorite Shakespeare play, um, y- Coriolanus takes place way, way, way at the beginning of the Roman Republic.

They've just, Coriolanus himself allegedly has killed the King of Rome and started up the Republic, which now he regrets because it means that poors get a voice, which he hates.

And then you've got, of course, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, which are two Shakespeare plays that take place at really the only part of the Roman Empire that m- most people care about [laughs] in media adaptations, which is the assassination of Julius Caesar and then the resulting end of the Republic, um, which Mark Antony and Cleopatra's deaths are kinda the end of the, the civil war and it's like, oops, all empire now.

No more republic, only emperors.

And then, um, the Goths did not really rule the...

I mean, they, they kind of ruled [laughs] the Italian Peninsula briefly, but they, like, the, their heart wasn't really in it.

But, um, from Goth s- sacking of Rome and Goth invasions and stuff, you did get a few Goth names that filtered into Italian, including the name Amerigo, i.e. Amerigo Vespucci, i.e. America.

So thank you, the Goths-