Bibliotheca Polyglotta

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Dionysius of Halicarnassus, about the kings of Rome after Romulus

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If from the expulsion of the kings the time is reckoned back to Romulus, the first ruler of the city, it amounts to two hundred and forty-four years. This is known from the order in which the kings succeeded one another and the number of years each of them ruled.

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After the death of Romulus the city was a year without a king.

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Then Numa Pompilius, who was chosen by the army, reigned for forty-three years;

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after Numa, Tullus Hostilius thirty-three years;

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(293) and his successor, Ancius Marcus, twenty-four years;

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after Marcius, Lucius Tarquinius, called Priscus, thirty-eight years;

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Servius Tullius, who succeeded him, forty-four years.

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And the slayer of Servius, Lucius Tarquinius, the tyrannical prince who, from his contempt of justice, was called Superbus, extended his reign to the twenty-fifth year.

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As the reigns, therefore, of the kings amount to two hundred and forty-four years or sixty-one Olympiads, it follows necessarily that Romulus, the first ruler of the city, began his reign in the first year of the seventh Olympiad [752 B.C.], when Charops at Athens was in the first year of his ten-year term as archon. For the count of the years requires this; and the number of years that each king reigned is shown in (?) that book. This, therefore, is the account given by those who lived before me and adopted by me concerning the time of the settlement of the city which now rules supreme.

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That is what Dionysius says.

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However, after the death of Tarquinius the Romans no longer had kings to rule them. Instead of kings, first they appointed Brutus [and Collatinus] to be consuls; then [they appointed] tribunes of the plebs; then dictators, who were generals; and then consuls again. I think it would be superfluous to list the magistrates of each year here, because it would be an enormous number of names. And if I described their achievements in detail, my account would stretch to a great length. - Such detail is unnecessary for my current purpose; and so I think it is appropriate to leave these magistrates, and everything connected with them, to another chronicle: that is, the consuls who came after Tarquinius, the tribunes of the plebs (295) and the dictators who governed the city of Rome, during the years up until the time of Caesar. After these remarks, we will return to the reign of the first emperor. From the death of Tarquinius up until the time of Julius Caesar, there was an intervening period of 115 Olympiads, which is the equivalent of 460 years.

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[This period is calculated as follows.] Tarquinius died at the end of the 67th Olympiad [509 B.C.]. Caesar became emperor at the start of the 183rd Olympiad [48 B.C.]. In between them, there was an interval of 460 years. From the 7th Olympiad [752 B.C.], when the city of Rome was founded, [until the death of Tarquinius] there was a period of 244 years. Therefore, from the foundation of Rome until the time of Julius Caesar, there was a total of 704 years, which is the equivalent of 176 Olympiads.

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These totals are confirmed by the account in the chronicle of Castor, where he gives a summary of the dates, and writes as follows.

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