How did Servius Tullius become king of Rome and what did he do?

This lesson is designed to be a succinct and clear 1 hour lesson that provides enough detail for the Ancient History OCR 9-1 GCSE Foundations of Rome Unit.

It goes through how Servius became king and why, what Livy says about him in his History of Rome, and his various political reforms and building projects. Students are also introduced to what Dionysius of Halicarnassus says about Servius and there is a comparison to Livy’s opinion.

There is also a clear and detailed explanation of Servius’ murder and his family tree - a complicated issue but made as simple as possible here and easy for all students to access.

The lesson is punctuated by pertinent questions which students can either verbally respond to or write out short explanations. these help to embed the knowledge and I’ve found them pretty useful for AfL.

My students liked these kind of lessons because they’re completely dual coded and as a result it massively reduces cognitive load, allowing pupils to easily access what is otherwise quite complex information.

The lesson contains various useful embedded video clips (hence the large file size) - the first ones recap Romulus, Numa, Tullus, Ancus and Priscus’ reforms as kings of Rome - since it is difficult to understand the significance of Servius without looking at the actions of his predecessors. There is also a short entertaining video clip detailing the extent to which we can trust Livy as a source.