The Roman Republic was founded after the overthrow of the last Etruscan king, Tarquinius Superbus. What was the traditional year?
The Republic lasted from 509 BC to approximately 27 BC — about 482 years. The legendary trigger was the rape of Lucretia by Tarquin's son, which produced an aristocratic revolt under Lucius Junius Brutus that expelled the Tarquin dynasty. 753 BC was the traditional Roman foundation date for the city itself. 264 BC was the start of the First Punic War. 27 BC is the Augustan settlement that effectively ended the Republic.
Read the full facts →The Roman Republic was the constitutional period of Roman government between the overthrow of the last king in 509 BC and the establishment of the principate by Augustus in 27 BC. Over those four-and-a-half centuries, Rome grew from a single Italian city-state into the dominant power of the Mediterranean and developed the political institutions that defined Western republican government for two thousand years.
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