After this period Tarquin began his reign, whose actions procured him the surname of the Proud, for he refused his father-in-law burial, alleging, that even Romulus died without sepulture. He put to death the principal senators, whom he suspected of having been in the interest of Servius. Then, conscious that the precedent of obtaining the crown by evil means might be adopted from him against himself, he surrounded his person with armed men, for he had no claim to the kingdom except force, inasmuch as he reigned without either the order of the people or the sanction of the senate. To this was added (the fact) that, as he reposed no hope in the affection of his subjects, he found it necessary to secure his kingdom by terror; and in order to strike this into the greater number, he took cognizance of capital cases solely by himself without assessors; and under that pretext he had it in his power to put to death, banish, or fine, not only those who were suspected or hated, but those also from whom he could obtain nothing else but plunder. The number of the fathers more especially being thus diminished, he determined to elect none into the senate, in order that the order might become contemptible by their very paucity, and that they might feel the less resentment at no business being transacted by them. For he was the first king who violated the custom derived from his predecessors of consulting the senate on all subjects; he administered the public business by domestic counsels. War, peace, treaties, alliances, he contracted and dissolved with whomsoever he pleased, without the sanction of the people and senate. The nation of the Latins in particular he wished to attach to him, so that by foreign influence also he might be more secure among his own subjects; and he contracted not only ties of hospitality but affinities also with their leading men. To Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum he gives his daughter in marriage; (he was by far the most eminent of the Latin name, being descended, if we believe tradition, from Ulysses and the goddess Circe, and by this match he attaches to himself his numerous kinsmen and friends).
Whose reign
Tarquinius Superbus 534–510 BC — the years tradition gives himHow much of this is history
Book One covers two and a half centuries before any Roman was writing anything down, and Livy composed it four hundred years after the last event in it. He says in his own preface that what comes before the city’s founding is “rather adorned with poetic legends than founded on authentic records”. The towns on the map are real places; the reigns and the dates are tradition.