page_title: Servius Tullius
section_title: Etruscan Servius
hierarchical_section_title: Servius Tullius / Historical appraisals / Etruscan Servius
caption_attribution_description: English: Tomb of Francois at Vulci - Liberation of Caelius Vibenna; on the left, Macstarna, later Roman king Servius Tullius Français&#160;: Tombe Francois à Vulci - Libération de Celio Vibenna. Fresque détachée de son support à sa découverte et transférée à Rome. Italiano: Tomba di Francois a Vulci - Liberazione di Celio Vibenna. Da sinistra: Caile Vipinas è liberato da Macstrna (identificato con Servio Tullio); Larth Ulhtes uccide Laris Papathnas Velznach (proveniente da Volsinii); Pesna Aremsnas Sveamach è ucciso da Rasce; Venthikau ...plzach è ucciso da Aule Vipienas (Aulo Vibenna). L'ultima scena a destra è sulla parete successiva e raffigura Marce Camitlnas che uccide Cnaeve Tarchunies Rumach
context_page_description: Servius Tullius was the legendary sixth king of Rome, and the second of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned from 575 to 535 BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his servile origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Rome's first Etruscan king, who was assassinated in 579 BC. Servius is said to have been the first Roman king to accede without election by the Senate, having gained the throne by popular support; and the first to be elected by the Senate alone, without reference to the people.
  Several traditions describe Servius' father as divine. Livy depicts Servius' mother as a captured Latin princess enslaved by the Romans; her child is chosen as Rome's future king after a ring of fire is seen around his head. The Emperor Claudius discounted such origins and described him as an originally Etruscan mercenary, named Mastarna, who fought for Caelius Vibenna.
  Servius was a popular king, and one of Rome's most significant benefactors. He had military successes against Veii and the Etruscans, and expanded the city to include the Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills.
context_section_description: Claudius' story of Servius as an Etruscan named Macstarna (title for "dictator" in Etruscan) was published as an incidental scholarly comment within the Oratio Claudii Caesaris of the Lugdunum Tablet. There is some support for this Etruscan version of Servius, in wall paintings at the François Tomb in Etruscan Vulci. They were commissioned some time in the second half of the 4th century BC. One panel shows heroic Etruscans putting foreign captives to the sword. The victims include an individual named Gneve Tarchunies Rumach, interpreted as a Roman named Gnaeus Tarquinius, although known Roman history records no Tarquinius of that praenomen. The victors include Aule and Caile Vipinas – known to the Romans as the Vibenna brothers – and their ally Macstrna [Macstarna], who seems instrumental in winning the day. Claudius was certain that Macstarna was simply another name for Servius Tullius, who started his career as an Etruscan ally of the Vibenna brothers and helped them settle Rome's Caelian Hill. Claudius' account evidently drew on sources unavailable to his fellow-historians, or rejected by them. There may have been two different, Servius-like figures, or two different traditions about the same figure. Macstarna may have been the name of a once celebrated Etruscan hero, or more speculatively, an Etruscan rendering of Roman magister (magistrate). Claudius' "Etruscan Servius" seems less a monarch than a freelance Roman magister, an "archaic condottiere" who placed himself and his own band of armed clients at Vibenna's service, and may later have seized, rather than settled Rome's Caelian Hill. If the Etruscan Macstarna was identical with the Roman Servius, the latter may have been less monarch than some kind of proto-Republican magistrate given permanent office, perhaps a magister populi, a war-leader, or in Republican parlance, a dictator.
caption: Painting from the François Tomb at Vulci, depicting the liberation of Caelius Vibenna. Macstarna is second from left
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