3/15/2023 0 Comments Collatinus brutus consulsIn subsequent years the powers of the king were divided among various elected magistracies. They had decided on a republican form of government with two consuls in place of a king executing the will of a patrician senate. As Lucretia lay dead, a revolutionary committee to overthrow the king of Rome was born.īrutus proposed the banishment of the Tarquins from all the territories of Rome and appointment of an interrex to nominate new magistrates. Brutus passed the dagger to each mourner and they all swore the same oath. If he should violate his oath, he prayed that he and his children might meet with the same end as Lucretia. Holding the bloody dagger in his hand, he swore that he would do everything in his power to overthrow the dominion of the Tarquinii. How a Woman Overthrows the King of Romeīrutus, who came with Collatinus, took the dagger from Lucretia’s wound, called the grieving party to order and proposed that they drive the Tarquinii from Rome. She died amid the cries of her husband and father. Lucretia said, Nec ulla deinde inpudica Lucretiae exemplo vivet. (“Not in time to come shall ever unchaste woman live through the example of Lucretia”) Then, as the men looked at each other in despair and confusion, Lucretia took up a dagger and plunged it into her heart. After promising her that they would pursue Sextus, they tried to appease Lucretia’s sorrow by saying what had happened to her was not her fault. She told them what has happened to her and charged them to avenge her honor. When she saw them, Lucretia began to cry. Spurius Lucretius came with Publius Valerius and Collatinus came with Lucius Junius Brutus. The distraught Lucretia sent messengers to her husband and her father, Spurius Lucretius – prefect of Rome, asking them each to come at once with a good friend, because a terrible thing had happened in her husband’s house. Everyone will say that you were killed during a dishonorable act of adultery.” With this final threat, Sextus succeeded. After begging, threatening and exhausting every method of seducing Lucretia, who would rather die than submit to him, Sextus finally said, “when I have killed you, I will put next to you the body of a nude slave. Placing his sword against her, Sextus woke Lucretia with a low voice and declared his love for her. Sextus waited until everyone else was asleep before taking up his sword and went to Lucretia’s bedroom. Lucretia received him graciously and granted him the hospitality according to his status as the son of the king. Collatinus was, at this time, away at Ardea. “Tarquin’s Sons Admiring Lucretia’s Virtue” by Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (1781)Ī few days later, Sextus returned to the house of Collatinus. It was then that Sextus was said to have been seduced both by Lucretia’s beauty and virtue. Finally, they arrived at the house of Collatinus and found Lucretia, with her servants, working on her spinning in the middle of her house. They visited each of their houses and found every single one of their wives getting ready for a night out. The men agreed and they all went on horseback to the city. Collatinus finally declared that no one was more worthy than his wife, Lucretia.Īs his friends scoffed, Collatinus invited them to ride their horses to his house and see for themselves what his wife was doing at home. The men started talking about their wives and, fueled by wine, each of them praised his own wife excessively. Among his guests was Tarquinius Collatinus, one of his distant kinsmen. One day, Sextus invited his friends for supper and drinks at his house. Sextus Tarquinius was the son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome who was engaged in the siege of Ardea at the time. “Tarquinius and Lucretia” by Titian (1490-1576) The Death a Ancient Roman Wife Lucretia’s name and her story were so popular that the Paduan philosopher and literary critic Sperone Speroni wrote, “There is no one so stupid that he has not heard of her.” Indeed, from the extensive portrayals of her at the time, there was simply no escaping her. Among many others, mentions of her were also made by Dante in his Inferno, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Legend of Good Women and John Gower’s Confessio Amantis. However, he was not the only one fascinated by Lucretia. Shakespeare mentions her in his plays such as Titus Andronicus, As You Like It and Twelfth Night, made allusions of her in Macbeth, and draws extensively on Ovid’s treatment of her story in his poem The Rape of Lucrece (1594). However, in 16th century Europe, the opposite happened: There was no other ancient name that fuels an artist’s imagination like “Lucretia”. ![]() We see her in many classical paintings as a beautiful yet tragic figure, looking up helplessly towards a figure of a Roman soldier standing over her. We would often see her images and, perhaps just as often, forget her name.
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