The Tarquins Who were they? What was their effect on Rome?

1. There are three Tarquinswho are most important for the purposes of this section: • (1)TarquiniusPriscus, • his son (2) TarquiniusSuperbus • and his son (3) SextusTarquinius. • The first two were kings of Rome but the behaviour of the last one was the final straw for the monarchy in Rome. The TarquinsWho were they?What was their effect on Rome? • (1)TarquiniusPriscus • LuciusTarquiniusPriscus was originally called Lucumo and was Etruscan. He went to Rome with his wife Tanaquil intending to do something to make himself powerful. On the way an eagle took off Priscus’ hat and then put it back on again which was seen as an omen that he would be king. • TarquiniusPriscus managed to get the king AncusMarcius to trust him tobe incharge of his sons but he betrayed this trust after Ancus died by sending his sons out hunting and then getting the people to vote him in as king. Livy says that he was quite a good man but a bit of a trickster as can be seen fromhow he made himself king. • TarquiniusPriscus did some good things for Rome: he increased the size of the senate, made war successfully on the Latins, planned out the Circus Maximus, established games and improved the forum. • We start to see the Tarquinarrogance when in a war with the Sabines and Priscus he tried to rearrange the cavalry units originally set up by Romulus and name some after himself. The omen interpreter AttiusNavius pointed out that before Romulus did this he checked the omens so Tarquinius should do the same. Tarquinius replied very rudely that the priest should say, with his gift of prophecy, whether what Tarquinius was thinking just then could be done. When the priest said it could be done, Tarquinius replied that he was wondering whether you could cut a knife-sharpening stone in half with a razor. Amazingly the priest did it. This shows the haughty attitude of Tarquinius, the importance of the omens and also that the gods did not let him get away with this. On the whole, however, TarquiniusPriscus was not that bad. senate Circus Maximus Forum

2. (2) TarquiniusSuperbus • LuciusTarquinius who was given the name Superbus because he was so arrogant was trouble from the start. First he had his wife killed so he could marry his sister-in-law Tullia who had got her husband killed. Then he seized the throne by force and threw out the old king who was run over in a chariot by Tullia and TarquiniusSuperbus did not even let him be buried. • LuciusTarquiniusSuperbus surrounded himself with armed menand did exactly what he wanted to in Rome without consulting anyone. He made particular friends with the Latins and then manipulated them into handing their power over to him by faking a plot by a man called Turnus who he had thrown in a river in a basket of stones even though he was innocent. He told the Latins they could either give him their power according to some treaty that he had probably just made up, or he would destroy their fields and cities. TarquiniusSuperbuswas the last kingof Rome. (3) SextusTarquinius When LuciusTarquiniusSuperbus was unable to conquer the Gabii in the normal way, he sent his sonSextus to trick them. Sextus told thaGabii that he was sick of his father and was now his enemy. Slowly Sextus built up the trust of the Gabii until they put him in charge. • His father sent him a silent message by knocking the heads off the tallest poppies in front of the messenger who did not understand. Sextus knew just what to do and so he killed all the important Gabii, shared their wealth out among the others and handed the whole city over to his father. • SextusTarquinius also rapedLucretia, the wife of TarquiniusCollatinus. She killed herself and her father, her husband and his friend LuciusJunius Brutus vowed to avenge her.