500 - 450 BC (Bellum Romanum)

Overthrow of the Roman Monarchy
Before the creation of the Roman Republic, the city of Rome was ruled by a series of kings, beginning in 753 with the legendary founder Romulus. By 510 a total of seven kings had ruled Rome, with Lucius Tarquinius Superbus serving as incumbent. Tarquinius became king in 535 BCE, the son of the fifth king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, after arranging for the murder of the current king, Servius Tullius, together with the help of his wife Tullia Minor, securing the throne for himself.

Immediately Tarquinius became an unpopular ruler among the people of Rome. Despite winning a number of military victories to succor his prestige, Tarquinius committed a number of faults, such as refusing to bury his predecessor Servius Tullius, and executing a number of the leading senators whom he suspected of remaining loyal to Servius. Tarquinius also diminished the size and authority of the Senate, by not replacing the slain senators, and not consulting the Senate on government matters. Capital criminal cases were judged by Tarquinius without the advice of counsellors, creating fear among his rivals. Together these breaks from tradition caused growing disdain against Tarquinius from numerous factions.

In 510 BCE Tarquinius declared war against the Rutulli, a wealthy nation near Rome, seeking to plunder and obtain spoils, partially to assuage the anger of his subjects. Tarquinius launched a strike against the enemy capital of Ardea, attempting to take the city by storm, but instead was engulfed in a long siege outside the city.

It is during this war that Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the king, was sent on a military errand to Collatia, a town approximately fifteen kilometers northeast of Rome by the Via Collatina. Sextus was welcomed into the governor's mansion by Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, son of the king's nephew, Arruns Tarquinius, former governor of Collatia and first of the Tarquinii Collatini.

According to legend, Sextus and Lucius debated the virtues of wives while at a wine party, when Lucius volunteered to settle the debate by riding to his house to see what his wife Lucretia was doing. Upon arrival the men saw that she was weaving her maids, and Lucius' wife was declared the most virtuous. That night Sextus sneaked into Lucretia's room, offering her the choice of submitting to his sexual advances and become his wife, or be killed alongside a slave as to imply that she was caught in adulterous sex. Lucretia went to her father's house the next morning, asking for vengeance for her rape, and stabbed a concealed dagger through her heart.

Lucius Junius Brutus, a leading citizen and the grandson of Rome's fifth king Tarquinius Priscus), Lucretia's father Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, another leading citizen Publius Valerius Publicola, and her husband Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus gathered the youth of Collatia and then went to Rome, demanding that the people rise against the king and overthrow the Tarquins. Brutus called for an assembly of the Tribunus Celerum to revoke the king's power, and the people voted for the deposition of the king, and the banishment of the royal family.

Next Brutus summoned the comitia curiata, an organization of patrician families, and called for their support in overthrowing the king. Brutus spoke of the king's tyranny, the forced labor of the plebeians in the ditches and sewers of Rome, and pointed out that Superbus had come to rule only by the murder of Servius Tullius, his wife's father. Following these proceedings the king's wife Tullia fled the city for the camp at Ardea, where her husband and his army remained.

It is during this period that a debate began on Rome's new form of government. Brutus open the discussion among an assembly of patricians, proposing the banishment of the Tarquins from all territories of Rome, and an appointment of an interrex to nominate new magistrates and conduct an election of ratification. To prevent the tyranny of a king from resurfacing, the assembly chose a republican form of government in which the executive power of the king was divided among two consuls, ruling in one year terms. Brutus also renounced all claim to the throne of king, and as part of this temporary system, perfect of the city Spurius Lucretius was swiftly elected interrex. Lucretius proposed that Brutus and Collatinus be selected as the first two consuls of the Roman Republic, and the pair were ratified by the assembly. To rally the rest of the population to their cause, the body of Lucretia was paraded through the streets, as the plebeians were summoned to the forum for legal assembly. A general election was held among the people, which abolished the monarchy and confirmed the right of the republican government.

Lucretius was left in command of the city, while Brutus proceeded with an army of Roman citizens to the camp at Ardea. The king received word of the events in the city and the advance toward his camp by Brutus however, and fled to camp for the city. Brutus was received as a hero by Tarquinius' former army, and the king's sons were expelled from their ranks. Tarquinius Superbus arrived at the city and was refused entry, forced to flee with his family into exile.