Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (
Unknown – 496 B.C.) was the seventh
King of RomeThe King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. The kings, excluding Romulus who held office by his virtue as the city's founder, were all elected by the people of Rome to serve for life, with none of the kings relying on military force to gain the throne...
, reigning from 535 until the Roman revolt in 509 B.C. which would lead to the establishment of the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
. He is more commonly known by his
cognomenThe cognomen was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary...
Tarquinius Superbus and was a member of the
Etruscan dynasty of
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
. The historian
Dionysius of HalicarnassusDionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus.-Life:...
may have divided one historical figure named Tarquin into two separate kings because of problems with dating their legendary events.
Superbus was also called
Tarquin the Proud and
Tarquin II among other titles / names. It is said that Superbus killed the preceding king,
Servius TulliusServius Tullius was the sixth legendary king of ancient Rome and the second king of the Etruscan dynasty. The traditional dates of his reign are 578-535 BC. Described in one account as originally a slave, he is said to have married a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, and succeeded him after...
to make himself king of Rome.
Superbus' father, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, was the fifth King of Rome reigning from 616-579 B.C. HIs grand-father was said to be
Demaratus the CorinthianDemaratus the Corinthian was the father of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth King of Rome and the grandfather of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king.-Life:...
, from the
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
city of
CorinthCorinth, or Korinth Corinth, or Korinth Corinth, or Korinth (Greek Κόρινθος, Kórinthos is a city in Greece. In antiquity it was a city-state, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. To the west of the isthmus lies the Gulf of...
. Priscus came from the
EtruscanEtruria — usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia — was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...
city of Tarquinii. Disgruntled with his opportunities in Etruria,
Priscus migrated to
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
with his wife
TanaquilTanaquil was the wife of Tarquinius Priscus, fifth king of Rome. They had four children, two daughters and two sons. One of the daughters became the wife to Servius Tullius, when he became the successor....
, at her suggestion. A propitious
omenAn omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. Omens may be considered "good" or "bad", but the term is more often used in a foreboding sense, as with the word "ominous".-In ancient Rome:Ancient Roman religion employed two distinct types of...
is said to have led to Priscus' establishment as King of Rome.
There are few surviving sources on Superbus' reign, and he is described as a
tyrantIn classical politics, a tyrant is one who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power. This mode of rule is referred to as tyranny....
and
dictatorA dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power with military control but, without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
when ruling the
kingdomThe person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times. A Monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or...
. He directed much of his attention to ambitious war plans and he eventually annexed various
LatinThe Latin League was a confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near ancient Rome, organized for mutual defense...
neighboring city states. In 509 B.C. the people revolted as a result of his son
Sextus TarquiniusSextus Tarquinius was the son of the last legendary king of the Etruscans, L. Tarquinius Superbus . He is mostly known for his rape of Lucretia, wife of Collatinus and sister of Lucius Junius Brutus....
'
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
of
LucretiaLucretia is a legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. According to the story, told mainly by two Roman historians, Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, her rape by the king's son and consequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the monarchy and...
, who was an important noblewoman in the kingdom.
Early life
Superbus' mother, Queen
TanaquilTanaquil was the wife of Tarquinius Priscus, fifth king of Rome. They had four children, two daughters and two sons. One of the daughters became the wife to Servius Tullius, when he became the successor....
had aided in the selection of
Servius TulliusServius Tullius was the sixth legendary king of ancient Rome and the second king of the Etruscan dynasty. The traditional dates of his reign are 578-535 BC. Described in one account as originally a slave, he is said to have married a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, and succeeded him after...
, Tarquin's brother-in-law, as heir to the Roman throne upon the assassination of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus by the sons of the previous king (
Ancus MarciusAncus Marcius was the fourth of the Kings of Rome.He was the son of Marcius and Pompilia and, through his mother, grandson of Rome's second king Numa Pompilius ....
) in 579 BC. Tarquin's brother Aruns Tarquinius had married Servius Tullius' daughter Tullia. However Tullia arranged a plot with Tarquin to usurp the throne by killing Aruns Tarquinius and the king,
Servius TulliusServius Tullius was the sixth legendary king of ancient Rome and the second king of the Etruscan dynasty. The traditional dates of his reign are 578-535 BC. Described in one account as originally a slave, he is said to have married a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, and succeeded him after...
. Legend dates this event to 534 BC. Tarquin then summoned the
SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government...
, in which Tullia proclaimed him the "new king." The new king murdered Servius Tullius, after which Tullia ran over her father's body with her
chariotThe chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC. The original chariot was a fast, light, open,...
. Then he executed the leading senators who he thought supported the king.
Tarquin orchestrated the murders of key senators who supported Servius Tullius and proceeded at once to repeal the recent social reforms in the
constitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
, seeking to establish a pure
despotismDespotism is a form of government by a single authority, either an individual , or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute political power.-History:...
in their place. Wars were waged with the
Latins"Latins" can refer to several groups of people. Its meaning has changed throughout time, and can still refer to different things even today.-Antiquity:...
and Etruscans, but the lower classes were deprived of their arms and employed in erecting monuments of regal magnificence (and some important public works, such as the
Cloaca MaximaThe Cloaca Maxima was one of the world's earliest sewage systems. Constructed in ancient Rome in order to drain local marshes and remove the waste of one of the world's most populous cities, it carried an effluent to the River Tiber, which ran beside the city....
), while the sovereign recruited his armies from his own retainers and from the forces of foreign allies.
Reign
Tarquin's authority over the city was confirmed by three initial actions: the leveling of the top of the
Tarpeian RockThe Tarpeian Rock was a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Roman Forum in Ancient Rome. It was used during the Roman Republic as an execution site. Murderers and traitors, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths...
that overlooked the
ForumThe Roman Forum , sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome. It is the central area around which the ancient Roman civilization developed...
and the removal of its ancient
SabineThe Sabines were an Italic tribe that lived in the central Appennines of ancient Italy, inhabiting also Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome...
shrines; the completion of the fortress temple to Jupiter on the nearby
Capitoline HillThe Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Campidoglio in Italian. The English word capitol derives from Capitoline...
; and the marriage of his son to the daughter of Octavius Mamilius of
TusculumTusculum is the classical Roman name of a major ancient Alban Hills city, in the Latium region of Italy.-Location:The ruins of Tusculum are situated on the Tuscolo hill, on the north edge of the outer crater ring of the Alban volcano...
, an alliance which secured him powerful assistance in the field..
According to one story, when Superbus was approached by the
Cumaean SibylThe ageless Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, Italy.The word sibyl comes from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess...
, she offered him nine books of
prophecyA prophecy is the message that has been communicated to a prophet which the prophet then communicates to others. In general, this message can involve divine inspiration, revelation, or interpretation. More specifically, it may be a professed psychic prediction. Confusion often exists between the...
at an exorbitant price. Superbus refused abruptly, and the Sibyl proceeded to burn three of the nine. She then offered him the remaining books, but at the same price. Superbus hesitated, but refused again. The Sibyl then burned three more books and again offered Tarquin the three remaining
Sibylline BooksThe Sibylline Books or Libri Sibyllini were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and consulted at momentous crises through the history of the Republic and the Empire...
at the original price. At last Superbus accepted. As the
Sibylline BooksThe Sibylline Books or Libri Sibyllini were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and consulted at momentous crises through the history of the Republic and the Empire...
were housed in the fortress temple of Jupiter, their legend has been associated with him.
Superbus' reign was characterised by bloodshed and violence. His son,
Sextus TarquiniusSextus Tarquinius was the son of the last legendary king of the Etruscans, L. Tarquinius Superbus . He is mostly known for his rape of Lucretia, wife of Collatinus and sister of Lucius Junius Brutus....
',
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
of
LucretiaLucretia is a legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. According to the story, told mainly by two Roman historians, Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, her rape by the king's son and consequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the monarchy and...
laid the seeds for a revolt. Lucretia's kinsman
Lucius Junius BrutusLucius Junius Brutus was the founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of the first consuls in 509 BC. He was the primary ancestor of the Junius family in Ancient Rome, including Marcus Junius Brutus.- Background :...
(himself a member of the Tarquin dynasty) and Lucretia's widowed husband (
Lucius Tarquinius CollatinusLucius Tarquinius Collatinus is traditionally one of the first two consuls of Rome, together with Lucius Junius Brutus. He is also the husband of Lucretia, the noblewoman raped by Sextus Tarquinius....
, grand-nephew of Tarquinus Priscus) led the revolt. That uprising resulted in the exile, after a reign of twenty-five years, of Superbus and his family, and the establishment of the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
, with Brutus as one of the first
consul-Ancient Rome:During the time of ancient Rome as a Republic, the consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates, serving as the heads of government for the Republic. New consuls were elected every year. There were two consuls, and they ruled together...
s.
After his exile, Superbus attempted to gain the support of other Etruscan and Latin kings, claiming that republicanism would spread beyond Rome. Even though the powerful Etruscan lord Lars Porsenna of Clusium (modern
ChiusiChiusi is a town and comune in province of Siena, Tuscany, Italy.-History:It was one of the more powerful among the Etruscan 12‑city confederation...
) backed Superbus' return, all efforts to force his way back to the throne were in vain. He left two older sons, Titus Tarquinius and Aruns Tarquinius, who was killed in 509 BC in one of his father's wars to regain the throne. Tarquin died in exile at
CumaeCumae is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania...
,
CampaniaCampania is a region of southern Italy in Europe. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,595 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
in 496 BC.
Cultural references
Superbus appears as the villain in Shakespeare's narrative poem,
The Rape of LucreceThe Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work"...
(1593-4).
MacbethThe Tragedy of Macbeth, commonly just Macbeth, is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
also mentions Tarquin in his famous
dagger soliloquy (2.1.55). The libretto from
Benjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, violist and pianist.-Life:...
's opera
The Rape of Lucretia (1946) was adapted by librettist Ronald Duncan from
The Rape of Lucrece, in which Tarquinius is a key role. According to
LivyTitus Livius , known as Livy in English, was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
, Tarqinius cut off the heads of the tallest poppies in his garden as an allegory to instruct his son Sextus Tarquinius to pacify a recently-conquered enemy city by executing its leading citizens. This leads to the modern expression of "
Tall Poppy SyndromeTall Poppy Syndrome is a pejorative term used in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada to describe a societal phenomenon in which people of genuine merit are criticised or resented because their talents or achievements elevate them above or distinguish them from their peers...
" to describe the phenomenon of tearing down individuals who rise too far above the majority. A quote concerning Tarquin and the poppy allegory appears in
KierkegaardSøren Aabye Kierkegaard was a prolific 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian. Kierkegaard strongly criticised both the Hegelianism of his time and what he saw as the empty formalities of the Church of Denmark...
's
Fear and TremblingFear and Trembling is an influential philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard, published in 1843 under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio...
.
Patrick HenryPatrick Henry served as the first post-colonial Governor of Virginia from 1776 to 1779. A prominent figure in the American Revolution, Henry is known and remembered for his "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" speech, and as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
refers to Tarquin in his famous speech ending, "If this be treason, then make the most of it."
External links