14. Study Questions Copy

It is entirely possible that the story of the kings, ending in one with a reputation for cruelty and tyranny, is just an easily digestible story to explain a process of political change that happened over several centuries, and was, in some ways, analogous to what was happening in parts of the Greek world. If you take the stories at face value, then the kings are responsible for initiating some of the important political and religious offices that still endured to the time that our sources were writing, as well as starting a process of territorial expansion. On the surface, their reigns seem to have been beneficial to Rome, and it could be argued that it was the desire for power by others that caused the expulsion of the kings, rather than a desire for a fairer political system.