History of the Constitution of the Roman Republic
The history of the Constitution of the Roman Republic is a study of the ancient Roman Republic that traces the progression of Roman political development from the founding of the Roman Republic in 509 BC until the founding of the Roman Empire in 27 BC. The constitutional history of the Roman Republic can be divided into five phases. The first phase began with the revolution which overthrew the Roman Kingdom in 509 BC, and the final phase ended with the revolution which overthrew the Roman Republic, and thus created the Roman Empire, in 27 BC. Throughout the history of the republic, the constitutional evolution was driven by the struggle between the aristocracy and the ordinary citizens.
History of the Constitution of the Roman Republic
According to legend, the Roman Kingdom was founded in 753 BC, and was ruled by a succession of seven kings. The last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, ruled in a tyrannical manner and, in 510 BC, his son Sextus Tarquinius raped a noblewoman named Lucretia. Lucretia, the wife of a senator named Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, committed suicide because of the rape, and this led to a conspiracy which drove Tarquin from the city. With Tarquin's expulsion, the Roman Republic was founded, and the chief conspirators, Collatinus and the senator Lucius Junius Brutus, were elected as the first Roman consuls (i.e. chief-executives). While this story may be nothing more than a legend which later Romans created in order to explain their past, it is likely that Rome had been ruled by a series of kings, who probably were, as the legends suggest, overthrown quickly.