Roman kings: myth, memory and the making of power

Before Rome's Republic and the Age of Emperors there were kings. Or so the story goes. These rulers loomed large in the Roman imagination, but is their narrative fact or fiction? In this episode of the History Extra podcast, Emily Briffitt is joined by ancient historian Christopher Smith to sift myth from memory and uncover how seven legendary figures shaped Rome's ideas of power. and identity.

You're joining me today to talk about Roman kingship and power before the Roman Republic But before we really dive in, what sort of time frame are we talking about when we're talking about Roman Kings? What sort of region are we talking about too? So Very roughly speaking, if one takes

the Roman account and we'll have some challenges around that as we go through. If you take the Roman account, the first king is in the middle of the eighth century B C. That's Romulus. And the last king is expelled from Rome in five hundred nine BC. So we've got that period from the middle of the eighth century to the end of the sixth century.

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