Editing Roman Kingdom (section)

==Origin==
{{Main|Founding of Rome}}
{{See also|Latial culture}}
[[File:135 Regia tessons etrusques.JPG|thumb|upright|Shards of [[terracotta]] decorative plaques, 6th century BC (Roman Kingdom and [[Etruscan art|Etruscan period]]), found in the [[Roman Forum]], now in the [[Baths of Diocletian|Diocletian Baths Museum]], Rome]]

The site of the founding of the Roman Kingdom (and eventual [[Roman Republic|Republic]] and [[Roman Empire|Empire]]) included a [[ford (crossing)|ford]] where one could cross the river [[Tiber]] in central [[Roman Italy|Italy]]. The [[Palatine Hill]] and hills surrounding it provided easily defensible positions in the wide fertile plain surrounding them. Each of these features contributed to the success of the city.<ref>{{cite web|title=Palatinus (Palatine Hill)|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Palatinus.html|website=www.penelope.uchicago.edu|access-date=17 April 2021}}</ref>

The traditional version of Roman history, which has come down principally through [[Livy]] (64 or 59 BC&nbsp;– AD 12 or 17), [[Plutarch]] (46–120), and [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] ({{circa}} 60 BC – after 7 BC), recounts that a series of seven kings ruled the settlement in Rome's first centuries. The traditional chronology, as codified by [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]] (116 BC – 27 BC) and [[Quintus Fabius Pictor|Fabius Pictor]] ({{circa}} 270 – {{circa}} 200 BC), allows 243 years for their combined reigns, an average of almost 35 years. Since the work of [[Barthold Georg Niebuhr]], modern scholarship has generally discounted this schema. The [[Gauls]] destroyed many of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city after the [[Battle of the Allia]] in 390 BC (according to Varro; according to [[Polybius]], the battle occurred in 387–6), and what remained eventually fell prey to time or to theft. With no contemporary records of the kingdom surviving, all accounts of the Roman kings must be carefully questioned.<ref>{{cite book|last= Asimov |first= Isaac|title= Asimov's Chronology of the World|location= New York |publisher= HarperCollins|year= 1991 |isbn= 0-06-270036-7 |page= [https://archive.org/details/asimovschronolog00asim_0/page/69 69]|url= https://archive.org/details/asimovschronolog00asim_0|url-access= registration }}</ref><ref>Matyszak 2003, p. 12.</ref>