Editing Lucius Junius Brutus (section)

== Background and historicity ==
Prior to the establishment of the [[Roman Republic]], Rome had been ruled by [[King of Rome|kings]]. 

The account is from [[Livy]]'s ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri|Ab urbe condita]]'' and deals with a point in the history of Rome prior to reliable historical records (virtually all prior records were destroyed by the [[Gaul]]s when they sacked Rome under [[Brennus (4th century BC)|Brennus]] in 390 or 387&nbsp;BC).

Modern historians have challenged almost every part of the traditional story from Livy:

{{quote|
Some of the leading ''dramatis personae'' – Lucretia, Brutus, Valerius Publicola, even Lars Porsenna – have been dismissed as figments of pure legend. The chronology has been challenged, with many scholars rejecting the traditional sixth-century date in favour of a later one – around 470&nbsp;BC, or even after 450. Others have suggested that the transition from monarchy to republic was not a sudden revolution, but rather a gradual process lasting many years, perhaps even centuries... before the consular system of the classical Republic was at last established. Finally, it is widely supposed in modern books that the end of the Roman monarchy marked the end of a period of Etruscan rule in Rome, and the liberation of the city from a period of foreign occupation. In its strongest form this theory maintains that the fall of Tarquin was only a minor symptom of a much wider phenomenon, namely the decline of Etruscan power and the fall of an Etruscan empire in central Italy.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=216}}
}}