Tullus Hostilius (Classical Latin: [ˈtʊlːʊs (h)ɔsˈtiːliʊs]; r. c. 672 BC – 640 BC) was the legendary third King of Rome. He succeeded Numa Pompilius and was succeeded by Ancus Marcius. In sharp contrast to his predecessor's peaceable and pious character, Tullus was characterised as an exceptionally warlike king. According to Titus Livius, Tullus believed that his predecessor's era of peace had weakened Rome and deliberately sought out war; in some Roman sources he is depicted as an even more warlike figure than the legendary founder Romulus.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.22. The most prominent event of his reign was the defeat of Rome's ancient rival Alba Longa and the complete destruction of that city. He is also credited with constructing the first Roman senate building, the Curia Hostilia, and the open assembly space Comitium; founding the Fetial college that conducted Rome's international treaties; establishing the second Salii college, the Salii Collini; and expanding Rome's cavalry.
Family and origins Tullus Hostilius came from a Roman family of Alban descent. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the earliest known member of the family was Hostus Hostilius, who had migrated to Rome from Medullia, a city colonised by Romulus whose population was of Alban stock. Hostus fought alongside Romulus in many campaigns and fell in the front ranks during the war against the Sabines. In commemoration of his valour, a monument was erected to him in the main section of the Roman Forum, with an inscription attesting to his bravery.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.12; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III.1.
Ancient sources disagree on the identity of Hostus Hostilius's wife. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Hostus's wife was the daughter of Hersilia, the woman who led the Sabine women onto the battlefield between the two armies and played the central role in brokering the peace treaty between Rome and the Sabines.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III.1. The more widely attested version holds that Hersilia was herself the wife of Romulus; Plutarch recorded both versions and drew attention to the discrepancy between the sources.Plutarch, Life of Romulus, 14. This connection suggests that Tullus had a mixed family heritage of both Latin and Sabine origin.
Hostus Hostilius died young, leaving behind a small son; this son grew up, married a noblewoman, and from that union Tullus Hostilius was born.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III.1. His grandfather's campaigns fought shoulder to shoulder with Romulus honoured the family's legacy and proved a decisive factor in Tullus's later election as king.
Accession to the throne
The election process Following the death of Numa Pompilius after a reign of forty-three years, Rome entered the traditional interregnum period. The Senate appointed a series of interreges, each serving for five days, whose sole task was to identify a candidate for kingship and present him to the people. The interrex who put forward the candidate convened the Curiate Assembly after senatorial approval, and Tullus Hostilius was elected king by acclamation. Election alone was insufficient, however; before formally entering office it was also necessary to obtain the auspicia (auspices), representing the sanction of the gods.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III.1.
Rivalry for the throne According to Plutarch, Numa's Pontifex Maximus, Numa Marcius, contended with Tullus Hostilius for the throne, but being defeated in the contest he starved himself to death.Plutarch, Life of Numa, 21; Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.22. Numa Marcius's son, also named Numa Marcius, later served as praefectus urbi (city prefect) under Tullus, and would become the father of Tullus's successor Ancus Marcius. This detail illustrates how deeply intertwined the political networks of the early Roman monarchy were.
The senators proclaimed Tullus king by highlighting his grandfather's heroism in battle alongside Romulus and his Roman lineage. Romans who believed that Numa Pompilius's long era of peace had left Rome weakened were searching for a warlike leader once again, and Tullus was the name that answered that expectation.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.22.
Domestic policy and urban developments
Distribution of land to the people According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, upon taking power Tullus immediately made an important populist move, distributing the large royal estates left by previous kings equally among landless and impoverished Romans. The lands that Romulus had seized in war and subsequent kings had used as personal property were parcelled out among landless citizens; Tullus publicly declared that his own inheritance was sufficient for both sacrifices and personal expenses. This act earned Tullus considerable goodwill among the people and removed the necessity for the poorer classes to work as virtual serfs on others' fields.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III.2–3.
Incorporation of the Caelian Hill Tullus incorporated the Caelian Hill within Rome's walls and allocated land there for housing, for the benefit of Romans who could find no accommodation in the city; he himself resided on the hill for a time. Subsequently, after the conquest and destruction of Alba Longa, the greater part of the displaced Alban population was resettled on the Caelian.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III.2.
Expansion of the cavalry According to Livy, following the conquest of Alba Longa Tullus substantially increased the number of equites (cavalry). To the cavalry force of 300 that had existed since the time of Romulus, ten turmae (squadrons) of Albans were added, bringing the total to 600. The newly added units were organised as three new centuries (centuriae) named the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres Posteriores. This reorganisation is regarded as one of the first large-scale reinforcements of the Roman army.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.30.
War with Alba Longa
The outbreak of conflict Alba Longa, situated approximately 19 km south-east of Rome, became the central focus of Tullus's reign. Tensions between Rome and Alba Longa began when the farmers of both sides launched raids across the border, seizing each other's livestock and produce. When the Alban government sent envoys to Rome to complain of these attacks, Tullus dismissed the grievance by asserting that the other side had begun the matter first. After the failure of mutual embassies the two cities began preparing for war.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.22–23; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III.2–5.
The Horatii and Curiatii Once the two armies faced each other on the battlefield, the Alban dictator Mettius Fufetius put forward a proposal to avoid heavy casualties: three brothers chosen from each city would fight one another, and the victorious side would impose its sovereignty over the other. Under this arrangement, the outcome of the war would be decided by the fate of just six men rather than by the two full armies engaging.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.24.
The Horatii brothers, representing Rome, and the Curiatii brothers, representing Alba Longa, entered this historic duel. According to Livy, there was a general consensus that the Horatii belonged to Rome and the Curiatii to Alba Longa, though this remained a contested point in the ancient sources. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in books III.13–22, treats the duel in considerably greater detail, presenting an account of the families' civic allegiance that is independent of Livy's, and additionally recording the political negotiations that formed the background to the contest.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.24; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III.13–22. After a long and bloody struggle, two of the Roman brothers fell; all three Alban brothers survived, though variously wounded. The sole remaining Roman, Publius Horatius, exploited his opponents' serious wounds by drawing them apart and killing them one by one, thereby winning victory for Rome.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.25. Alba Longa was thus compelled to acknowledge Roman sovereignty.
Horatius's killing of his sister and the subsequent trial Returning triumphant, Publius Horatius entered Rome carrying the arms and armour of the Curiatii as spoils of war. Waiting at the city gate was his sister Horatia, who caught sight of a military cloak belonging to one of the Curiatii — her fiancé — draped over her brother's shoulders, and broke into lamentation, crying out her betrothed's name. At this sight Horatius drew his sword in fury and killed her on the spot: Let any Roman woman who mourns Rome's enemy die thus!Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.26.
Horatius was arrested and charged with parricidium (the killing of a close relative). Tullus appointed two special judges, the duumviri, to conduct the trial; they convicted Horatius and sentenced him to death. Horatius, however, on Tullus's advice exercised his right of provocatio (appeal) to the popular assembly, bringing the case before the people. Horatius's aged father rose before the assembly to argue both that his daughter had deserved her fate and that a father who had already lost two sons in the service of the state should not be deprived of his third. The people voted to acquit, swayed by admiration for the son's courage — a decision that Livy specifically notes was motivated by heroism rather than justice. Valerius Maximus likewise records this trial as an early example of the right of provocatio, viewing Tullus's conduct as a gesture of political compromise.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.26; Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia, VIII.1.1.
Following the acquittal, religious purification was required. The father was ordered to offer various expiatory sacrifices at public expense, a ceremony that subsequently became a permanent annual ritual of the Horatian family. In addition, young Horatius was required to pass beneath a beam extended across the street — a symbolic act of submission performed with covered head. This beam was named the tigillum sororium (Sister's Beam), and Livy records that it was maintained at public expense and still stood in his own day.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.26.
Two significant historical consequences are attributed to this trial: it is considered the earliest example of provocatio, the right of every condemned Roman citizen to appeal to the people; and the modern observation that the tigillum sororium ritual may have been invented to provide a mythological origin for an existing legal and religious practice. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the legend was in all probability fabricated to legitimise prevailing legal and religious customs.Encyclopædia Britannica, "Horatii and Curiatii" article.
The treachery and punishment of Mettius Fufetius After Alba Longa's defeat, Mettius Fufetius was compelled to remain in alliance with Rome. Before long, however, Tullus went to war against the Etruscan city of Veii and its ally Fidenae. Tullus requested that Mettius bring his Alban forces to fight alongside Rome. Mettius agreed, but simultaneously concluded secret arrangements with both the Etruscans and the Romans, planning to switch sides at the height of battle. During the engagement, Mettius kept the Alban troops stationary on a hilltop, joining neither Rome nor the Etruscans, and thereby betraying both sides.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, I.27–28; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III.24–28; Neel, Jaclyn (2015). "Alba Longa", The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1–2. Rome's earliest epic poet, Ennius, included the punishment of Mettius Fufetius and the destruction of Alba Longa in his Annales, demonstrating that these events had lodged themselves in Roman collective memory long before Livy.Ennius, Annales, fr. 139, 143 (Skutsch).