Servius Tullius
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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According to Roman tradition, Servius Tullius was the sixth king of ancient Rome, the second king of the Etruscan dynasty and reigned 578-535 BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his servile origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Rome's first Etruscan King, assassinated in 579 BC. He was said to be the first Roman king to accede without being elected by the Senate, having gained the throne by the contrivance of his mother-in-law.
No contemporary inscriptions attest his existence. Several later traditions describe his birth as servile and many imply his father as divine. Livy postulates his mother as a captured Latin princess enslaved by the Romans; her child is chosen as Rome's future king after a ring of fire is seen around his head. The Emperor Claudius seems to discount such origins as fabulous and describes him as an originally Etruscan mercenary who fought for Caelius Vibenna.
Ancient Roman and Greek historians regard Servius as one of Rome's most significant regal benefactors whose reforms and institutions laid the groundwork for Republican government. They credit him with military successes against Veii and the Etruscans, with social, administrative, military, political and religious reforms, building projects and the expansion of the city to include the Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills. He is supposed to have instituted some of Rome's religious festivals, built temples to Fortuna and Diana, and a palace for himself on the Esquiline. He is also said to have improved the lot and fortunes of Rome's lowest classes of citizens and non-citizens despite opposition from the patrician order.
According to Pliny, Servius was the first Roman king to stamp pieces of metal with the images of cattle, oxen and swine. Before this time, the Romans simply used lumps of metal in their commerce.
In Livy's account, Servius reigned for 44 years, until murdered by his treacherous daughter Tullia and son-in-law Tarquinius Superbus. In consequence of this "tragic crime" and his overweening arrogance as king, Tarquinius was removed. This cleared the way for the abolition of Rome's monarchy and the founding of the Roman Republic.
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