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According to legend, Rome was founded in the year 753 BC. Many of the peoples that previously inhabited the Italian peninsula arrived there in the Indo-European migrations that reached the peninsula around the 13th century BC; The Etruscans were the first great civilization on the peninsula, although pre-Roman Italy was also heavily influenced by neighboring Greece. On the seven hills on the banks of the Tiber River, a city-state developed from villages of Latin tribes that grew on its slopes and were unified between the 9th and 8th centuries BC. Together with that Latin colony, coming from Alba Longa, groups of sabinos moved from the mountains, since it was the confluence of roads and an important point for trade at the time, mainly salt. Eventually, these villages were unified into a ‘league of the seven hills’. The birth of Rome was cemented by the advance of the Etruscans southward into Campania via Lazio, turning the agglomeration of villages into a city that took on an Etruscan name, Rome. The “eternal city” was born thanks to the fusion of Latins, Sabines and Etruscans.
The period of the kings, also known as the Roman monarchy, began according to legend with the founder, Romulus, and lasted from 753 to 509 BC, the year in which according to the writings of historians based on oral tradition, Tarquin was overthrownthe Proud and abolished the monarchy. Roman kings were elected, it was not a hereditary position, and there was a senate that had limited power. There were seven kings who ruled Rome in this period, and Tulio Hostilio, of Latin origin, was the third of them. Romulus would have been the first, but there is more data that indicates that it was the Etruscan king, apparently contemporary, who developed the structure of the city towards the end of the 7th century BC. Numa Pompilio was the second, and according to the chronicles he lived between the years 753 and 673 BC; he was a Sabine who is credited with having pacified Rome during his reign and having introduced changes in its social structure, such as the creation of the main religious institutions and the organization of artisans into eight corporations.
Tullius Hostilius
Tulio Hostilio was a Latin grandson of Hosto Hostilio, who fought alongside Romulus against the Sabines. He was a warrior and came to power at an advanced age, on the death of Numa Pompilius; His reign resumed the warlike desires of the times of Romulus.
Alba Longa was the cradle of the Latins, settled in the Alban mountains. According to legend, it was founded by Ascanio, son of Aeneas, after the Trojan War and the flight of the surviving Trojans after the destruction of the city by the Greeks. The struggle for power in Alba Longa generated the founding myth of Rome, that of the brothers Romulus and Remus. The growth of Rome and its expansion increased the rivalry between the two city-states, Alba Longa and Rome, originating their military confrontation during the reign of Tulio Hostilio when Gaius Cluilio was the king of Alba Longa. Looting by peasants from both kingdoms gave reason for Tulio Hostilio to declare war on Alba Longa, but legend has it that the conflict was settled in single combat between three Roman brothers, the Horatii, and three Albanian brothers,
The supremacy of Rome over Alba Longa implied the support of the Albanians for the Romans in the conflict with the Etruscans of the city of Veii. But Metio Fufetio, who had assumed power in Alba Longa after the death of Gaius Cluilio, supported the uprising of the Etruscan city of Fidenas, subdued by Rome, an uprising also supported by the Etruscans of Veii. Tullius Hostilius defeated the Fidenean uprising and punished Alba Longa’s betrayal by executing Metio Fufetio and destroying the city, settling the surviving Albanians in Rome.
In this way, after the period of pacification of the Sabine Numa Pompilio, the expansion of Rome was consolidated with the reign of the Latin Tulio Hostilio.
The death of Tullius Hostilius
Tulio Hostilio, unlike Numa Pompilius, left religious rites in the background, and the Romans believed they had been abandoned by the gods when Rome was plunged into an epidemic. Tullio Hostilio fell ill and decided to resume the rites implanted by Numa Pompilio, but shortly after, according to legend, he died in a fire caused by lightning sent by Jupiter, angry at the abandonment of the king of Rome of reverence for the gods. But according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, it would have been Ancio Martio, grandson of Numa Pompilius and successor to the throne of Rome on the death of Tullo Hostilio, who would have murdered the current king and then set fire to the house to cover his crime with the version of lightning. taking advantage of the fact that at that moment a strong storm was unloading on the city. Ancus Marcius was the last Roman king of Sabine origin, recognized as one of the great kings of Rome. He combined the military expansionism of the Latin kings who preceded him with the consolidation of the religious and political institutions promoted by his grandfather.
Sources
Carandini, Andrea. Rome: Day One . New Jersey, Princeton University, 2007.
Grummond, Nancy T. History of ancient Italic people . Britannica Encyclopedia, 2015.
