The origins of the Roman Republic are obscure, and much of what the Romans themselves wrote about their distant past is legend rather than history. The traditional date for the founding of the city by the mythical demigod Romulus is 753 BCE. The Roman Republic was claimed to have been founded in 509 BCE, after the overthrow of a legendary Etruscan king, Tarquin the Proud, who had become a tyrant. Roman Republican institutions slowly evolved, from the ferment of internal and external conflicts.