Editing Servius Tullius (section)

===Legacy===
Servius' political reforms and those of his successor Tarquinius Superbus undermined the bases of aristocratic power and transferred them in part to commoners. Rome's ordinary citizens became a distinct force within Roman politics, entitled to participate in government and bear arms on its behalf, despite the opposition and resentment of Rome's patricians and senate. Tarquinius was ousted by a conspiracy of patricians, not plebeians.<ref>Servius' reforms reflect a general trend in the Graeco-Roman world, whose rulers increasingly sought a popular base of support, appealing directly to the commoner-soldiery and if possible, bypassing the aristocracy; in the ancient world, this was effectively the definition of tyranny. See Cornell, 148, 238.</ref> Once in existence, the ''comitia centuriata'' could not be unmade, or its powers reduced: as Republican Rome's highest court of appeal, it had the capacity to overturn court decisions, and the Republican senate was constitutionally obliged to seek its approval. In time, the ''comitia centuriata'' legitimized the rise to power of a plebeian nobility, and plebeian [[Roman consul|consul]]s.<ref>Cornell, pp. 195–197, 334–335.</ref>

Servius' connections to the Lar and his reform of the vici connect him directly to the founding of [[Compitalia]], instituted to publicly and piously honour his divine parentage – assuming the Lar as his father – to extend his domestic rites into the broader community, to mark his maternal identification with the lower ranks of Roman society and to assert his regal sponsorship and guardianship of their rights. Some time before the Augustan Compitalia reforms of 7 BC, [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] reports Servius' fathering by a Lar and his founding of Compitalia as ancient Roman traditions. In Servius, Augustus found ready association with a popular benefactor and refounder of Rome, whose reluctance to adopt kingship distanced him from its taints. Augustus brought the Compitalia and its essentially plebeian festivals, customs and political factions under his patronage and if need be, his censorial powers.<ref>Lott, 31: citing Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 4.14.3–4. See also Beard, North, Price, ''Religions of Rome, Vol. 1, A History'', Cambridge University Press, 1998. p 184, for Augustan reforms and their connection to older, traditionally Servian social and religious institutions.</ref> He did not, however, trace his lineage and his re-founding to Servius – who even with part-divine ancestry still had servile connections – but with [[Romulus]], patrician founding hero, ancestor of the divine [[Julius Caesar]], descendant of Venus and Mars. Plutarch admires the Servian reforms for their imposition of good order in government, the military and public morality, and Servius himself as the wisest, most fortunate and best of all Rome's kings.<ref>Plutarch, ''Moralia,'' On the fortune of the Romans, 10.58–63. English version (Loeb) at Thayer's website [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Fortuna_Romanorum*.html#ref6459]</ref>