Editing Numa Pompilius (section)

==Kingship==
[[File:Numa Pompilius.jpg|thumb|Numa Pompilius shown as an effigy on a Roman coin minted by [[Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso (consul 23 BC)|Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso]] during the reign of Emperor [[Augustus]]. Piso himself claimed descent from the king.]]
After the death of Romulus, there was an [[interregnum]] of one year, in which members of the [[Roman Senate|Senate]] exercised the [[Royal prerogative|royal power]] in rotation, each for five days in a row. In 715 BC, after much bickering between the factions of Romulus (the Romans) and Tatius (the Sabines), a compromise was reached, and the Senate elected the Sabine Numa, who was approximately forty years of age,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hooker|first=Edna M.|date=1963|title=The Significance of Numa's Religious Reforms|journal=Numen|volume=10|pages=87–132|doi=10.1163/156852763X00043}}</ref> as the next king.

At first, Numa refused the offer of kingship. He argued that Rome, under the influence of Romulus's rule, was still a country of war. It needed a ruler who would lead their armies, not someone who lived a life of piety and reflection.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Colman|first=John|date=2015|title=The Philosopher-King and the City in Plutarch's Life of Numa|journal=Perspectives on Political Science|volume=44|pages=1–9|doi=10.1080/10457097.2014.900321|s2cid=155559296}}</ref> However, his father and Sabine kinsmen, including his teacher and the father of Numa's son-in-law, Marcus, along with an embassy of two senators from Rome, together persuaded him to accept. In Plutarch and [[Livy|Livy's account]], Numa, after being summoned by the Senate from Cures, was offered the tokens of power amid an enthusiastic reception by the people of Rome. He requested, however, that an [[augur]] should divine the opinion of the gods on the prospect of his kingship before he accepted. [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] was consulted, and the [[omen]]s were favourable. Thus approved by the Roman and Sabine people and the heavens, he took up his position as [[King of Rome]].

According to Plutarch, Numa's first act was to disband the personal guard of 300 so-called [[celeres]] (the "Swift") with which Romulus permanently surrounded himself. This gesture is variously interpreted as self-protection in the face of their questionable loyalty, a sign of Numa's humility, or a sign of peace and moderation.

Based on Roman chronology, Numa died of old age in 672 BC. After a reign of 43 years, he was about 81 years old.<ref name=":02">[[Livy]], ''[[Ab urbe condita libri]]'', [[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 1|I]] "Numa [ruled] forty-three."</ref><ref>{{cite Plutarch|Numa|20}} "Forty-three years...He was something over eighty years old when he died."</ref> At his request, he was not cremated, but instead buried in a stone coffin on the [[Janiculum]], near the altar of [[Fontus|Fons]]. [[Tullus Hostilius]] succeeded him.

Rome had two kings in succession who differed in their methods. According to Livy, Romulus was a king of war while Numa was a king of peace, and thus Rome was well versed in both the arts of war and peace.<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal|last=Livy|title=The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08|journal=[[Project Gutenberg]]|pages=19}}</ref>