Lucius Tarquinius Priscus

exactly you get money

so uh so rome kept on expanding uh i mean the sources for this period the historians are extremely biased so it's hard to really tell how much of this is actually true like The main historian, who is Livy, he even admits in his introduction that he is kind of just making up things as he goes along.

So it's not entirely accurate, I suppose.

But it's the best thing we have.

I mean, there was some writing, but no one really wrote a book in 700 BC about the history of Red City, which is a shame because that would have been really, really useful for us now.

Proof by trust.

So trust me, bro, but don't actually trust me because I'm making this stuff up.

Yeah.

In their smoke, their soil, their stories, the Eternal City was being prepared softly, steadily, like dawn rising across the hills.

The kings of early Rome, seven hundred and fifty-three, five hundred and nine BCE.

The huts by the Tiber slowly gave way to a city, and tradition held that it began with a single man, Romulus, who in seven fifty-three BCE, after quarreling with his twin brother Remus, drew the first boundary line and became Rome's first king.

The story told that Remus mocked his brother's wall, leaping over it, and Romulus struck him down, declaring that so would it be with anyone who crossed Rome's defenses.

His reign, remembered for arrogance and cruelty, brought great works, temples, fortifications, but also growing resentment.

The tale of Lucretia, dishonored by the king's son and driven to despair, sparked outrage that led noble families to drive the Tarquins from power.

In five hundred and nine BCE, the monarchy ended, and Rome vowed never again to suffer kings.

The cry for liberty echoed, and from it was born the republic, a new system in which power would be shared, checked, and contested.

Livy himself doubted that part, since Gauls had been crossing the Alps for generations.

Livy dated the first migration to the reign of Rome's fifth king, Tarquinius Priscus, roughly two hundred years earlier.

He figured that the narrative of the slighted nobleman was simply a way to add drama to the narrative.

Modern archaeology puts the real Gallic settlement of the Po Valley in the fifth and early fourth centuries BC, but Livy's point stands.