Editing Roman Republic (section)

===Founding===
{{main|Overthrow of the Roman monarchy}}
Rome had been ruled by [[Roman Kingdom|monarchs]] since its [[Founding of Rome|foundation]]. These monarchs were elected, for life, by the men of the [[Roman Senate]]. The last Roman monarch was called [[Tarquin the Proud]], who in traditional histories was expelled from Rome in 509&nbsp;BC because his son, [[Sextus Tarquinius]], raped a noblewoman, [[Lucretia]].{{sfn|Cornell|1995|pp=215–218|ps=. Cornell offers a summary of "Livy's prose narrative" and derived literary works relating to the expulsion of the kings.}}{{Sfn|Dion. Hal. ''Ant. Rom.''|loc=4.64–85}}{{sfn|Livy|loc=1.57–60}} The tradition asserted that the monarchy was abolished in a revolution led by the semi-mythical [[Lucius Junius Brutus]] and the king's powers were then transferred to two separate [[Roman consul|consuls]] elected to office for a term of one year; each was capable of checking his [[Collegiality#Collegiality in the Roman Republic|colleague]] by {{lang|la|[[veto]]}}.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|pp=226–228}} Most modern scholarship describes these accounts as the quasi-mythological detailing of an aristocratic coup within Tarquin's own family{{sfnm|Cornell|1995|1pp=215–218, 377–378|Drummond|1989|2p=178}} or a consequence of an Etruscan occupation of Rome rather than a popular revolution.{{sfn|Forsythe|2005|pp=148–149}}