Tarquin & The NEW Government

Tarquin was a tyrant who technically wasn't even in line for the throne. Tarquin's grandfather died and his wife appointed some random guy to be the new king because she liked him better than her own sons. He has two daughters that marry some brothers. One of the daughters killed her sister and her own husband. Then she marries Tarquin, who was her sister's husband. She convinced Tarquin to take the throne. Tarquin sat on the throne and declared himself king and when the real king objected, Tarquin threw him down the stairs and paid people to assassinate him. The daughter sees her dad's body on her way home and runs over his body with the chariot. Tarquin refused to have his body buried and assassinated any senators who objected. A few years after that, Tarquin's son basically tried to rape some girl and when she was refusing, he blackmailed her. The girl gave in to the blackmail, confessed to her family, and then committed suicide. Tarquin tried to make everyone forget about it, but the people rose against the whole family and kicked them out of Rome. After that, the people of Rome didn't want to be ruled by another king. Instead of a king they elected two consuls. The consuls had a year in office and they could only be aristocrats. The plebeians got tired of this and kind of went on strike. They refused to serve in the military until laws were written out. The Romans made a new form of government called a democracy. The US government is pretty similar to the ancient Roman government. They both have three branches and a legal code. The two consuls are kind of like the President and Vice President. This is what we learned today about ROME.