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by Andrea Carandini Roman History • Roman History The story of the legend of the founding kings (Romulus, Titus Tatius and Numa) is followed by the saga of the Tarquins, full of mysteries set in a second Rome, after the Romulean one, but nevertheless the first to be defined as great. Between the end of the 7th century and the end of the 6th century BC, two kings reigned in Rome: one of Greek origin, Tarquinius Priscus, the other of Etruscan origin, Tarquinius Superbus. Between these two, Servius Tullius reigned, probably of Latin origin, refounder of the city and of the original constitution: a new Romulus. Like Romulus, in fact, he is a hero of divine origin, the son of a woman who tends the royal hearth and of an extra-human being: the family Lare. And again, Servius Tullius, like Romulus, is shrouded in a mystery, halfway between myth and history, which one can try to unravel. If the mythical father of Servius was a familiar Lare who had possessed a conquered queen and servant of the wife of Tarquinius Priscus, whose descendant was Servius, son of an enslaved slave and future king of Rome? Archaeology and history will try to answer these and other questions.