The Etruscan Kings and Servius Tullius's Reforms

The city gets built

From **616 to 509 BC** Rome was ruled by three kings the tradition calls **Etruscan**, and something changes in the story at this point. The first four kings are credited with founding **practices**: a Senate, a calendar, priesthoods, a ritual for declaring war. These three are credited with building **a state and a city**. A great drain under the Forum. A racing arena. A temple on the Capitol. And, under Servius Tullius, a complete reorganisation of who counted as what in Rome. One of those changes outlived the monarchy by centuries, and knowing which is most of what this section is testing.

Three kings from Etruria

The tradition dates each reign, and each king is remembered for something different.

What is Tarquinius Priscus remembered for?

Which answer best captures why Priscus matters in this period study?

• Public works: the Cloaca Maxima draining the Forum valley, the Circus Maximus, and the start of the Capitoline temple, which together turned a settlement into a city
• Founding the Senate
• Introducing the census and dividing citizens by property
• Establishing the Republic

Founders and builders

Setting the two halves of the regal period side by side is the quickest way to see what changed.

Match each king to what he did

How the Servian classes worked

This is the most important thing in the section, so learn the mechanism rather than the name. **Step one: the census.** Every citizen was registered, and registered with his property. That alone was new: Rome now knew who its citizens were and what each was worth. **Step two: classes by wealth.** Citizens were sorted into classes according to that property. Your class decided **what equipment you brought to the army** - the wealthiest could afford full armour, the poorest almost nothing. **Step three: voting by centuries.** Each class was divided into centuries, and the assembly voted **by century, not by head**. The wealthiest classes held far more centuries than their numbers justified, so a majority could be reached before the poorer classes voted at all. **So one reform did three jobs at once**: it counted the citizens, it raised the army, and it built a political system weighted towards wealth. That is why it is worth more marks than any building in this period.

What the census was for

Select the TWO things the Servian census made possible.

• Knowing what military equipment each citizen could afford, and so how the army should be raised
• Sorting citizens into classes and centuries, which then became the basis on which the assembly voted
• Giving every citizen an equal vote
• Recording the number of enslaved people in Rome for their own protection

Rome under the Etruscans

The first of the three Etruscan kings was _____, who came from Tarquinii and began the great drain known as the _____, which took the water off the Forum valley. He was followed by _____, whose reforms registered the citizens in a _____ and sorted them into classes according to their _____. The last king of Rome was _____, who completed the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitol.

Put the three reigns in order

Arrange these events from 616 BC forwards.

• Tarquinius Priscus comes to Rome from Etruria and becomes king
• The Cloaca Maxima is begun and the Forum valley is drained
• Servius Tullius registers the citizens and divides them into classes by property
• Servius is murdered and Tarquinius Superbus takes the throne
• The temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitol is completed

Why Servius matters most

**"Which of the Etruscan kings had the greatest impact on Rome? (10 marks)"** "Both Tarquins left Rome physically changed. Priscus began the Cloaca Maxima, which drained the Forum valley and made a civic centre possible, and the Circus Maximus; Superbus completed the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitol. **But Servius Tullius reorganised the Romans themselves, and that lasted longer than any of it.** His census registered every citizen with his property. That register then divided the citizens into classes, which decided both what equipment a man brought to the army and how his vote was counted. The decisive point is what happened next. The monarchy ended in 509, but **the assembly went on voting by centuries, weighted towards the wealthiest classes, for centuries into the Republic**. A drain and a temple are impressive; a working system for counting citizens, raising an army and deciding votes is the thing the Republic inherited and kept. So Servius had the greatest impact, because his reform was the only one that outlived the institution that produced it." **The shape to copy**: acknowledge the rivals properly, then name the single criterion that decides between them - here, what survived - and show your choice meeting it.

Find the thing that lasted

A summary of Servius Tullius's reign. Tap the TWO details that describe something Rome still had after the monarchy ended.

• Servius came to the throne after Tanaquil concealed the death of Tarquinius Priscus.
• He registered every citizen together with his property in a census
• , and he is traditionally credited with a wall around the city.
• The citizens were sorted into classes, and the assembly voted by centuries rather than by head
• . He also dedicated a temple to Diana on the Aventine, shared with the Latins.

Who decided a vote?

In the assembly Servius created, the centuries voted in order from the wealthiest class down. What was the practical effect?

• The wealthiest classes held far more centuries than their numbers warranted, so a majority was often reached before the poorer classes voted at all
• Every citizen's vote counted the same
• The poorest citizens held the most centuries and so decided most votes
• The king decided, and the assembly only advised

Write carefully about an attribution

Servius is traditionally credited with a wall around Rome, but the surviving circuit is much later. Build a sentence that says so without overclaiming in either direction.

How the assembly actually voted

Work through a vote in the assembly Servius created, to see why the design mattered.

• The assembly is called. Each century casts one vote. Which centuries are called first?
• The wealthiest classes vote the same way and a majority of centuries is reached. What happens to the remaining classes?
• A question asks whether this assembly made Rome more democratic. What is the accurate answer?

Your turn: kings who built

Explain what the three Etruscan kings changed in Rome, and which change mattered most.

• Name one achievement each for Tarquinius Priscus and Tarquinius Superbus
• Explain the three parts of Servius Tullius's reform: the census, the classes, and voting by centuries
• Explain what the class system decided besides voting
• Argue which of the three kings had the greatest impact, naming the criterion you are judging by