Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, came to power between two men more famous as Etruscan kings, the ambitious Tarquinius Priscus and the despotic last king, Tarquin the Proud. Servius Tullius (sometimes referred to as Servius, and sometimes as Tullius) may be more famous as an adjective applied to walls and reforms, named Servian for him, than as a king.

Roman Social Organization

Five kings before Servius, during the earliest years of legendary Rome, one of the concerns of the new city-state was to establish an order among the people.

Some men were marked as patres 'fathers,' presumed to be the basis for the class of patricians, who served as an advisory council to the king. The people were also divided into 3 Roman tribes, the Ramnenses (Ramnes), Titienses (Tities), and Lucerenses (Luceres) (Plutarch, Romulus 22). These are thought to be genetically related groups.

Summary of Servian Accomplishments

Dates are debatable, but the traditional dates for Servius Tullius are 578-534 B.C. While we don't know exactly how he obtained the throne, other than that he obtained it via public support, or true details of his reforms, impressive achievements are ascribed to him. He built temples and other public structures, including, perhaps, the Servian Walls. He expanded the city and re-stratified the Romans to include plebeians and previously disenfranchised men (e.g., manumitted slaves who weren't genetically part of the Romulan tribes) in the military [see Servian Military Reforms] and tax rolls. The comitia curiata, the popular assembly of the earlier regal period, allowed the people to participate in the government by electing the magistrates, both civil and military; sanctioning and repealing laws; and declaring war and making peace -- at least according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus [fl.

c. 20 B.C.]. Although credited with helping the plebeians, Servius Tullius did with one hand what he undid with the other, at least in this instance, since he minimized the importance of the curiate assembly. Alexander Yakobson, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, says, "According to the sources, King Servius Tullius set up the centuriate assembly with the express intention of minimizing the voting rights of the poor."

New Servian Social Organization

According to tradition, Servius created a new system of tribes based not on family, but location and registration in the tribally-organized census. Twentieth century ancient historian H. Last, in his article The Servian Reforms, compares the tribal reforms of Tullius with those of Cleisthenes in Athens, where also blood-groups gave way to geographic affiliations.

• Athens' 10 Tribes

It is not known exactly how many tribes Servius Tullius set up. We do know that later there were 35 tribes, but 14 were added after 387, so before then, but from an unknown date, there were 21. There were 4 urban tribes in the group of 21, and 17 rural. The 4 urban tribes were Palatina (PAL), Collatina (COL), Esquilina (ESQ), and Suburana (SVC) [See Names of the Roman Tribes]. Some accounts credit Tullius with creating all the tribes (however many their number in the regal period); while others credit him with creating just the four urban ones.

Dionysius writes about the tribal organization. In this passage, Dionysius points out some of the sources of confusion:

"15 Tullius also divided the country as a whole into twenty-six parts, according to Fabius, who calls these divisions tribes also and, adding the four city tribes to them, says that there were thirty tribes in all under Tullius. But according to Vennonius he divided the country into thirty-one parts, so that with the four city tribes the number was rounded out to the thirty-five tribes that exist down to our day. However, Cato, who is more worthy of credence than either of these authors, does not specify the number of the parts into which the country was divided."
~Dionysius of Halicarnassus IV.15

Rome's First Census

In addition to dividing the people geographically, and including more than just the aristocracy in the power structure, Servius Tullius is credited with the first census, whose purpose was to divide people into five classes and a proletariat (a word based on the Latin proles, offspring, because the proletariat were useful to the state only as producers of offspring), all decided on the basis of wealth. The level of wealth determined which century (Latin: centuria) a man would be placed in. Centuries were both voting and military units, theoretically holding 100 men.

The Centuriate Voting System

The centuries were very top-heavy. Since this was a wealth-based classification system, this is one of the Servian puzzles. The very rich, then as now, were a minority. Nonetheless, the wealthiest few had the largest number of centuries, 80 (or 70), as opposed to 20 for classes two to four, 30 for the fifth, and only one for the proletariat. Taxation, military liability, and voting was done by century, so the wealthiest had the upper hand in the vote (if the vote equites and the first class was unanimous, there was no need to proceed to the centuries of the second class) and the greatest burden of taxes and bodies for the army. Since soldiers were expected to provide their own weapons and armor, the poor proletariat were blocked from joining the army.

• Servian Reforms of the Army
• Voting in the Roman Republic

How Servius Tullius Appeased the Rich and Tricked the Poor

Dionysius describes how the poor were tricked by his centuriate voting system and how the rich were appeased after having been put out by the large burden that had been placed on them in terms of taxation and bodies for the army:

"20 Having by this means laid upon the rich the whole burden of both the dangers and expenses and observing that they hand discontented, he contrived by another method to relieve their uneasiness and mitigate their resentment by granting to them an advantage which would make them complete masters of the commonwealth, while he excluded the poor from any part in the government; and he effected this without the plebeians noticing it. This advantage that he gave to the rich related to the assemblies, where the matters of greatest moment were ratified by the people. 2 I have already said before that by the ancient laws the people had control over the three most important and vital matters: they elected the magistrates, both civil and military; they sanctioned and repealed laws; and they declared war and made peace. In discussing and deciding these matters they voted by curiae, and citizens of the smallest means had an equal vote with those of the greatest; but as the rich were few in number, as may well be supposed, and the poor much more numerous, the latter carried everything by a majority of votes. 3 Tullius, observing this, transferred this preponderance of votes from the poor to the rich. For whenever he thought proper to have magistrates elected, a law considered, or war to be declared, he assembled the people by centuries instead of by curiae. And the first centuries that he called to express their opinion were those with the highest rating, consisting of the eighteen centuries of cavalry and the eighty centuries of infantry. 4 As these centuries amounted to three more than all the rest together, if they agreed they prevailed over the others and the matter was decided. But in case these were not all of the same mind, then he called the twenty-two centuries of the second class; and if the votes were still divided, he called the centuries of the third class, and, in the fourth place, those of the fourth class; and this he continued to do till ninety-seven centuries concurred in the same opinion. 5 And if after the calling of the fifth class this had not yet happened but the opinions of the hundred and ninety-two centuries were equally divided, he then called the last century, consisting of the mass of the citizens who were poor and for that reason exempt from all military service and taxes; and whichever side this century joined, that side carried the day. But this seldom happened and was next to impossible. Generally the 1n was determined by calling the first class, and it rarely went as far as the fourth; so that the fifth and the last were superfluous.
21 In establishing this political system, which gave so great an advantage to the rich, Tullius outwitted the people, as I said, without their noticing it and excluded the poor from any part in public affairs."

References

• _{The Beginnings of Rome, by T.J. Cornell, 1995.}
• _{A History of Rome, by M. Cary and H.H. Scullard; New York, 1975.}
• _{Livy Book I}
• _{Dionysius of Halicarnassus Book IV}
• _{"Roman Population, Territory, Tribe, City, and Army Size from the Republic's Founding to the Veientane War, 509 B.C.-400 B.C.," by Lorne H. Ward; The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 111, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), pp. 5-39.}
• _{"Petitio et Largitio: Popular Participation in the Centuriate Assembly of the Late Republic," by Alexander Yakobson; The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 82 (1992), pp. 32-52.}
• _{"The Servian Reforms," by Hugh Last; The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 35, Parts 1 and 2 (1945), pp. 30-48.}

• Roman Election Irregularities
• How the Romans Voted During the Republic