Servius Tullius was the
legendary sixth
king of Rome, and the second of its
Etruscan dynasty. He reigned 575–535 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 was variously said to have been the first Roman king to
accede without election by the
Senate, having gained the throne by popular support, at the contrivance of his mother-in-law; and the first to be elected by the Senate without reference to the people.