The Roman Republic
Rome expels its last king and builds a constitution designed to prevent another.
- When
- Known to
- ± 10 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
Tradition dates the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud to 509 BCE. The Republic that follows divides power deliberately: two consuls holding office for one year and able to veto each other, a Senate of former magistrates, popular assemblies, and later tribunes with the power to block any act against a citizen. It is not democratic — wealth is weighted heavily — but the horror of monarchy becomes foundational, and the machinery is built to frustrate any individual.