The Gauls destroyed many of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC (according to Varro according to Polybius, the battle occurred in 387–6), and what remained eventually fell prey to time or to theft. Since the work of Barthold Georg Niebuhr, modern scholarship has generally discounted this schema. 200 BC), allows 243 years for their combined reigns, an average of almost 35 years. The traditional chronology, as codified by Varro (116 BC – 27 BC) and Fabius Pictor ( c. 60 BC – after 7 BC), recounts that a series of seven kings ruled the settlement in Rome's first centuries.

The traditional version of Roman history, which has come down principally through Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 12 or 17), Plutarch (46–120), and Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( c. Each of these features contributed to the success of the city.

The Palatine Hill and hills surrounding it provided easily defensible positions in the wide fertile plain surrounding them. The site of the founding of the Roman Kingdom (and eventual Republic and Empire) included a ford where one could cross the river Tiber in central Italy. See also: Latial culture Shards of terracotta decorative plaques, 6th century BC (Roman Kingdom and Etruscan period), found in the Roman Forum, now in the Diocletian Baths Museum, Rome

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