e kingship was deprived of its
political functions, and remained at Rome solely as a lifelong priestly
office. It is possible that there had been a gradual decline of the royal
authority before the growing power of the nobles as had been the case at
Athens, but it is very probable that the final step in this change
coincided with the fall of an Etruscan dynasty and the passing of the
control of the state into the hands of the Latin nobility (about 508
B. C.).

*Institutions of the regal period.* The royal power was not absolute, for
the exercise thereof was tempered by custom, by the lack of any elaborate
machinery of government, and by the practical necessity for the king to
avoid alienating the good will of the community. The views of the
aristocracy were voiced in the Senate (_senatus_) or Council of Elders,
which developed into a council of nobles, a body whose functions were
primarily advisory in character. From a very early date the Roman people
were divided into thirty groups called _curiae_, and these _curiae_ served
as the units in the organization of the oldest popular assembly--the
_comitia curiata_. Membership in the _curiae_ was probably hereditary, and
each _curia_ had its special cult, which was maintained long after the
_curiae_ had lost their political importance. The primitive assembly of
the _curiae_ was convoked at the pleasure of the king to hear matters of
interest to the whole community. It did not have legislative power, but
such important steps as the declaration of war or the appointment of a new
_rex_ required its formal sanction.

*Expansion under the kings.* Under the kings Rome grew to be the chief
city in Latium, having absorbed several smaller Latin communities in the
immediate neighborhood, extended her territory on the left bank of the
Tiber to the seacoast, where the seaport of Ostia was founded, and even
conquered Alba Longa, the former religious center of the Latins. It is
possible that by the end of the regal period Rome exercised a general
suzerainty over the cities of the Latin plain. The period of Etruscan
domination failed to alter the Latin character of the Roman people and
left its traces chiefly in official paraphernalia, religious practices
(such as the employment of _haruspices_), military organization, and in
Etruscan influences in Roman art.

IV. EARLY ROMAN SOCIETY

*The Populus Romanus.* The oldest name of the Romans was _Quirites_, a