The History of Rome, vol 2 | Page 3

a "community-manager" (-medix tuticus-) changed from
year to year, and we may assume that similar institutions existed among
the other national and civic communities of Italy. In this light the
reasons which led to the substitution of consuls for kings in Rome need
no explanation. The organism of the ancient Greek and Italian polity
developed of itself by a sort of natural necessity the limitation of the
life-presidency to a shortened, and for the most part an annual, term.
Simple, however, as was the cause of this change, it might be brought
about in various ways; a resolution might be adopted on the death of
one life-ruler not to elect another--a course which the Roman senate is
said to have attempted after the death of Romulus; or the ruler might
voluntarily abdicate, as is alleged to have been the intention of king
Servius Tullius; or the people might rise in rebellion against a
tyrannical ruler, and expel him.
Expulsion Of The Tarquins From Rome

It was in this latter way that the monarchy was terminated in Rome. For
however much the history of the expulsion of the last Tarquinius, "the
proud," may have been interwoven with anecdotes and spun out into a
romance, it is not in its leading outlines to be called in question.
Tradition credibly enough indicates as the causes of the revolt, that the
king neglected to consult the senate and to complete its numbers; that
he pronounced sentences of capital punishment and confiscation
without advising with his counsellors; that he accumulated immense
stores of grain in his granaries, and exacted from the burgesses military
labour and task-work beyond what was due. The exasperation of the
people is attested by the formal vow which they made man by man for
themselves and for their posterity that thenceforth they would never
tolerate a king; by the blind hatred with which the name of king was
ever afterwards regarded in Rome; and above all by the enactment that
the "king for offering sacrifice" (-rex sacrorum- or -sacrificulus-)
--whom they considered it their duty to create that the gods might not
miss their accustomed mediator--should be disqualified from holding
any further office, so that this man became the foremost indeed, but
also the most powerless in the Roman commonwealth. Along with the
last king all the members of his clan were banished--a proof how close
at that time gentile ties still were. The Tarquinii thereupon transferred
themselves to Caere, perhaps their ancient home,(1) where their family
tomb has recently been discovered. In the room of the one president
holding office for life two annual rulers were now placed at the head of
the Roman community.
This is all that can be looked upon as historically certain in reference to
this important event.(2) It is conceivable that in a great community with
extensive dominion like the Roman the royal power, particularly if it
had been in the same family for several generations, would be more
capable of resistance, and the struggle would thus be keener, than in the
smaller states; but there is no certain indication of any interference by
foreign states in the struggle. The great war with Etruria--which
possibly, moreover, has been placed so close upon the expulsion of the
Tarquins only in consequence of chronological confusion in the Roman
annals--cannot be regarded as an intervention of Etruria in favour of a
countryman who had been injured in Rome, for the very sufficient

reason that the Etruscans notwithstanding their complete victory neither
restored the Roman monarchy, nor even brought back the Tarquinian
family.
Powers Of The Consuls
If we are left in ignorance of the historical connections of this
important event, we are fortunately in possession of clearer light as to
the nature of the change which was made in the constitution. The royal
power was by no means abolished, as is shown by the very fact that,
when a vacancy occurred afterwards as before, an "interim king"
(-interrex-) was nominated. The one life-king was simply replaced by
two year-kings, who called themselves generals (-praetores-), or judges
(-iudices-), or merely colleagues (consules).(3) The principles of
collegiate tenure and of annual duration are those which distinguish the
republic from the monarchy, and they first meet us here.
Collegiate Arrangement
The collegiate principle, from which the third and subsequently most
current name of the annual kings was derived, assumed in their case an
altogether peculiar form. The supreme power was not entrusted to the
two magistrates conjointly, but each consul possessed and exercised it
for himself as fully and wholly as it had been possessed and exercised
by the king. This was carried so far that, instead of one of the two
colleagues undertaking perhaps the administration of justice, and the
other the command of the army, they both administered justice
simultaneously in