Tarquin and Government

Tarquin seized power like an old school tyrant, and its problem has something to do with his crazy family history. Tarquin's grandfather, the fifth king, dies and his widow's name is Servius Tullius. Servius Tullius has two daughter's and one of his daughter's names is Tullia and she kills her husband and her sister so she could marry Tarquin. Tulia convinces Tarquin to steal the power from her father, Servius Tullius who was king at the time. Tarquin sits and the throne and declares himself king but Servius Tullius objects to this, but this doesn't stop Tarquin from throwing him down on the street and having him assassinated. Tarquin refuses to bury the dead king's body and kills anyone who disagrees with him. Crazy must run in the family because of years later Tarquin's son Sextus forces himself on a matron but she refuses and he threatens to kill her. He ends up blackmailing her which leads to her suicide. Tarquin tried to hide the situation, but the people weren't having it, so they had him and his family expelled from Rome. After all these crazy events, Rome was done with having kings.

Since there are no more Kings, the Romans decided to have two consuls. Consuls are elected officials whose terms last one year and are always patricians. The duties of the consuls were dealing with justice, making law, commanding the army. One consul could veto the other which would reduce their power. In the 5th century BC, the plebians, middle-class citizens who made up most of the population, were sick of not having any power and decided to rebel against the patricians. This lead to the "Twelve Tables" which were laws on tablets that were hung in public in 450 BC. Now the plebeians had tribunes elected. They had a band new republic which consisted of democracy, aristocracy, monarchy, and not tyranny. The US originally based its government off of Rome, but it isn't quite the same. The things we have in common are that we have three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial; and we both also have a legal code.

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