Hello and welcome to the history of Rome.

Last time we finished with the death of Romulus, first and greatest king of Rome.

Today, we will cover his first three successors, who they were, and what roles they played

in the evolution of Roman law and society.

I call this section the Seven Kings of Rome because common historical nomenclature always

refers to the Seven Kings of Rome.

Although we will only be talking about three kings, it seemed appropriate to use the

phrase as a title even if it isn't technically accurate.

Just remember, there were seven kings of Rome.

Oh, by the way, in reality, there were almost certainly more than seven kings of Rome.

The idea that seven successive kings could reign for an average of thirty-five years

each stretches credulity.

No where else in the history of mankind have seven monarchs in a row managed a continuous

good luck.

The stories handed down to us of Numa, and hostilius, and marshes, and the Tarquins are no

doubt apocryphal, meant to cover the ground between Romulus and the founding of the Republic,

while explaining the evolution of the city's culture at the same time.

So just remember, even though there weren't really seven kings of Rome, there were seven

kings of Rome.

After Romulus died or disappeared, there was a crisis, who would lead the Romans now that

their first and only king was gone.

The two arose not just from the question of which particular man would reign, but also

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