Servius Tullius
Servius Tullius was the sixth legendary king of ancient Rome, and the second king of the Etruscan dynasty. The traditional dates of his reign are 578-535 BC.
Biography
Described in one account as originally a slave, he is said to have married a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, and succeeded him after the latter's assassination in 579 BC.
He was the first king to come to power without the consultation of the plebeians, having gained the throne by the contrivance of Tanaquil, his mother-in-law.
In this account (found in Livy) Tullius was anointed as a young child to become king, after he spontaneously caught on fire.
He was then raised as a prince.Incidentally, Livy did not believe that Servius Tullius was born a slave. Livy postulated that Tullius' mother was a queen of an Etruscan city which had been sacked by the Romans.
His mother was captured and to pay homage to her regal origins she was allowed to live in the palace. Another legend represented him as a soldier of fortune originally named Mastarna, from Etruria, who attached himself to Caelius Vibenna.
After various adventures Caelius was beaten but Mastarna came to Rome with the remnants of his army. He named the Caelian Hill after his deceased friend, but some suppose Caelius Vibenna to have placed a settlement there.
The servile stories can probably be discounted as folk-aetiologic; that is, the good Livy and others were trying to explain the name Servius, which looks like an adjective of servus, "slave."
The adjective, however is servilis, and there is some evidence to support the Mastarna story, which comes from the Oratio Claudii Caesaris of the Lugdunum Tablet and represents an Etruscan explanation being told by the emperor Claudius (a savant in matters Etruscan).
The evidence is a painting of Etruscan heroes in the Francois Tomb at Vulci. A figure labelled Macstarna and others labelled the Vibenna brothers (Caile and Avle Vipinas) appear there. If Macstarna was Servius, the questions remain as to why he changed his name, and why he chose that name.
After military campaigns against Veii and the Etruscans, he improved the administrative and political organization of Rome. He undertook building projects and expanded the city to include the Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills.
Favoring the goddess, Fortuna (perhaps he was thinking of the fate of Vibenna), he built several temples to her as well as to Diana. He also built a palace for himself on the Esquiline.
However, as time passed, Servius increasingly favoured the most impoverished people in order to obtain favours from the plebs.
His legislation was extremely distasteful to the patrician order, and his reign of forty-four years was brought to a close by a conspiracy in 535 BC headed by his son-in-law Tarquinius Superbus and his own daughter Tullia.
He had married his two daughters to the two grandchildren (Lucius and Aruns) of Priscus.
Lucius murdered his wife, while Tullia murdered Aruns, and two survivors made a match.
Lucius continued the tradition by murdering Servius, while Tullia ordered a chariot to be driven over the body.
One senses a murder mystery here with an attempt at concealment, but the sources do not give sufficient information to reach that conclusion.
Instead, we are to believe they did all their murdering under the very eyes of the helpless population, unfortunately foreshadowing the behavior of some of the emperors.
The street in which the chariot was driven over Servius ever after bore the name of the "Vicus Sceleratus" (Street of Infamy).
Sources: Livy
ANCIENT AND LOST CIVILIZATIONS
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