AncientRome.StudyPast.com

Roman Senate

During the regal period, King Tullus Hostilius built the Curia Hostilia, the Roman Senate building.

Because it was a templum -- a consecrated place, it was oriented north/south, like other temples in Rome.

The first king, Romulus, created the original Senate to serve as an advisory staff. Later, the senators' powers became extensive, although they did not write laws: Senators handled treaties, alliances, war, and more. During the early period their numbers increased from 100-300. Once senators assumed office, they were there for life, unless kicked out. Once a Roman held a magisterial office, he became a senator. Thus, insofar as the magistracies were elected offices, senators were elected, but they were not directly elected to be senators.

Read relevant passages on the ancient history of the Roman Senate and Senators from Livy.

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Periods of Roman History -Regal Period

The Regal Period means the time of the kings, an era mired in legends with only bits and pieces of information deemed factual. This was the time of Romulus and the Rape of the Sabines.

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Servian Wall

The Servian Wall (Murus Servii Tullii) was supposedly constructed by King Servius Tullius in the 6th century B.C. but is thought, on the basis of archaeological study of the building material, to date from 378 B.C., instead.

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Cloaca Maxima

The cloaca maxima was the sewer system built in the sixth or seventh century B.C., by one of the kings of Rome -- probably Tarquinius Priscus, although Livy attributes it to Tarquin the Proud -- to drain the marshes in the valleys between the hills into the Tiber River.

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Fetials

One of the kings of ancient Rome started the priestly guild of fetials, probably in imitation of a similar group among the neighboring Italic tribes. The Fetials had legal/military functions in addition to their priestly ones. Read a brief description of the Fetials.

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Seven Roman Kings - Numa Pompilius

To provide themselves with wives, the Romans (during Romulus' reign) had forcibly taken Sabine women.
In the interests of harmony, the wives persuaded their husbands and fathers not to slaughter each other, but maintaining peace hadn't been easy. When Romulus died, the Sabines refused to permit another Roman power over them, so the Romans agreed to a Sabine king, but one of their choosing -- the honorable and universally acceptable Numa Pompilius.

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Aeneas

To trace the legendary history of Rome to its beginnings takes us back to the burning walls of Troy, from which a small band of Trojans, led by a prince named Aeneas, escaped. Aeneas was the son of the goddess Venus and a mortal named Anchises who was old and frail enough for Aeneas to have to carry on his back.

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The Kings of Rome were the first rulers of the Romans. The period in which they ruled is known mostly through legend and is filled with fanciful stories, like that of Romulus being taken up into the clouds before the senators and never being seen again.

Study Questions

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