【collation】

As it approached the 5th century BC, Rome was emerging from its legendary past into the real world of recorded history. It was now a thriving province of the Etruscan world ruled by Etruscan kings. Primitive mud and thatch huts of Rome's early days had given way to a city of brick. Rome was absorbing people from surrounding lands and growing fast. Etruscan and Greek traders met in its busy streets. Phoenician boats from Sicily and North Africa sailed the Tiber. Wine, olives and gold flooded into Italy. But Rome was still no different from many other prosperous cities of the Mediterranean. What first set it apart was not its capacity for trade or engineering or even warfare, but its ability to organize itself.

The man who reshaped Roman society was an Etruscan king called Servius Tullius. There are no statues of him. We have no idea what he looked like, he never became as famous as later rulers of Rome, but his mark on history maybe even greater. And yet all Servius Tullius did was carrying out history's first census.

Now the census, the Roman census was a very important institution, they would count the Roman citizens all right and list them and then distribute them in their appropriate classes and political units and so on. The census was a kind of way of grading Roman citizens according to their status and prestige.

In the 6th century BC, the census detailed every Roman's obligations to the city- to obey its laws, pay taxes and do military service. But much more important, it also gave them rights. This was the great innovation of Servius. In proportion to their contribution, Romans were given a say in how their city was run. Servius sowed the seeds of representational government, he organized an assembly to govern the city and gave it a name, the Senate. Finally, census decreed that each of the city's social classes should contribute a group of soldiers for Rome's defense. They were called the legions, the fighting force that was going to put Rome's destiny back in its own hands and one day give it the world.

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