534 BC

Events in 534 BC 2

• 578 BC – 534 BC Servius Tullius — the great reformer Servius Tullius, sixth king, transforms Roman society through the census — a systematic count of citizens classified by wealth into voting classes. The Servian constitution creates the comitia centuriata (assembly of centuries), tying military obligation to political rights. He also expands Rome's boundaries with the Servian Wall and creates the four urban tribes. His reforms lay the constitutional foundations that will persist through the Republic.
• 534 BC – 509 BC Tarquinius Superbus — the last king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Proud), seventh and final king of Rome, rules by terror. He murders his father-in-law Servius Tullius, abolishes the Senate's power, and rules as a tyrant in the Greek mould. His son Sextus rapes the noblewoman Lucretia, who kills herself after naming her assailants. Her kinsman Lucius Junius Brutus leads the aristocratic revolt that expels the Tarquins in 509 BC, ending the monarchy forever.