The Fall of the Kings

A stalled siege outside Ardea begins a chain of events that will bring Rome’s monarchy crashing down.When a drunken contest among Rome’s young aristocrats leads Sextus Tarquinius to Lucretia, the brutality of Tarquin’s dynasty finally enters the heart of a Roman household. Lucretia’s tragedy becomes the spark that years of tyranny, executions, confiscations, forced labor, and fear had prepared Rome to receive.Drawing on Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and the poetic memory preserved by Ovid, this episode follows Lucretia’s accusation, the revelation of the true Lucius Junius Brutus, and the uprising that spreads from Collatia to Rome itself.As Brutus turns private vengeance into a public reckoning, Romans are forced to decide whether they will continue to endure the family that has ruled them through fear. Tarquin races back toward his capital while Brutus races toward the Roman army—and the fate of more than two centuries of kingship hangs between them.For the first time since Romulus, Rome is about to discover what it means to exist without a king. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.