Tarquinii

“ According to the story, during the ploughing of a field near Tarquinii a being of boyish appearance sprang out of the furrow. The shouts of the ploughman (Tarchon) brought to the spot all the people of Etruria, whom the boy proceeded to instruct in the art of divination. ”

“ Civita Castellana (anc. Falerii) which also occupies the site of the Etruscan city, while the Roman site, some distance away, is now abandoned. The importance of Tarquinii to archaeologists lies mainly in its necropolis, situated to the S.E. of the medieval town, on the hill which, from the tumuli raised above the tombs, bears the name of Monterozzi. The tombs themselves are of various kinds. The oldest are tombe a pozza, or shaft graves, containing the ashes of the dead in an urn, of the Villanova period, the oldest of them probably pre-Etruscan ”

“ The men of Veii and the men of Tarquinii gathered together their armies and marched against Rome, that they might bring back King Tarquin. And the Romans came forth to meet them, Valerius having command of the foot soldiers and Brutus riding before with the horsemen. In the host of the enemy also the horsemen had the first place, their leaders being Aruns son of King Tarquin. And the lictors told Aruns, while they were yet far off, "See there is Brutus the Consul," who himself also, when the armies were now near together, knew the face of the man. ”

“ We find the Etruscan power encircling Rome on all sides, and in Rome itself a tradition of the rule of princes of Etruscan origin. The Tarquinii come from South Etruria; their name can hardly be anything else than the Latin equivalent of the Etruscan Tarchon, and is therefore possibly a title (='lord' or 'prince') rather than a proper name. ... That Etruria had, under the sway of Etruscan lords, forged ahead of the country south of the Tiber in wealth and civilisation is a fact which the evidence of remains has placed beyond doubt. ”

“ Zonaras 7, 11.
openly against the tyrants; and they made a compact not to receive Tarquin again. After accomplishing thus much and entrusting the city to the others, Brutus himself rode off to the camp, where he persuaded the soldiers to adopt the same course as the people had chosen. And when Tarquin learned of what had occurred and hastened toward the city, he was repulsed and fled to Tarquinii, accompanied by his children and the rest of his followers, with the single exception of Tullia; she, as the story goes, destroyed herself. ”

“ They spread southward as far as the Tiber centuries before Rome was, and founded a city called Tarquinii about 1040 B.C. Etrurian kings ruled at an early time in Rome, probably up to about 500 B.C. The immense cemetery of Tarquinii is all that remains of the ancient city, which is68 now succeeded by the Corneto city, built close to the old site.
The Etruscans it is judged came about 1200 B.C. They attained renown in bronze work and in pottery (remember here that the Lady Maket flutes date about 1100 B.C.) . ”

“ There are several other Romanesque and Gothic churches in the town more or less restored. The oldest parts of the Palazzo Comunale date from about 1000. The Gothic Palazzo Vitelleschi (1439) contains remarkably rich windows. The municipal museum (which is to be transferred to this palace) and the Palazzo Bruschi, contain fine collections of Etruscan antiquities from the tombs of Tarquinii. Four miles to the S.W. is the Porto Clementino (perhaps the ancient Graviscae, the port of Tarquinii) , with government saltworks, in which convicts are employed. ”

“ The first to hold the highest office were Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, husband of Lucretia.
Some time after Tarquin had fled to Cære, he found an asylum at Tarquinii, and from that city made an effort to stir up a conspiracy in his favor at Rome. He sent messengers ostensibly to plead for the restoration of his property, but really for the purpose of exciting treason. There were at Rome vicious persons who regretted that they were obliged to return to regular ways, and there were patricians who disliked to see the plebeians again enjoying their rights. ”

“ It was from this same ridge that his Etruscan successor, Tarquinius Priscus, coming from Tarquinii (Corneto) , had his first view of the city over which he came to reign, and here the eagle, henceforth to be the emblem of Roman power, replaced upon his head the cap which it had snatched away as he was riding in his chariot. Hence, also, Lars Porsena, king of Etruria, looked upon Rome, when he came to the assistance of Tarquinius Superbus, and retired in fear of his life after he had seen specimens of Roman endurance, in Horatius Cocles, who kept the falling bridge ”

“ This appeal decided the Veientines, they one and all loudly demanded that their former humiliations should be wiped out and their losses made good, now that they had a Roman to lead them. The people of Tarquinii were won over by the name and nationality of the exile; they were proud of having a countryman as king in Rome. So two armies from these cities followed Tarquin to recover his crown and chastise the Romans. When they had entered the Roman territory the consuls advanced against them; Valerius with the infantry in phalanx formation, [3] Brutus reconnoitring in advance with the cavalry. ”

“ Numa was a Sabine from Cures (Livy, i. 18; Plutarch, Numa, 3; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Ant. Rom. ii. 58) ; Servius Tullius, according to the common account, was the son of Ocrisia, a slave woman of Corniculum (Livy, i. 39. 5; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Ant. Rom. iv. 1.) , but according to another account he was an Etruscan (see above, p. 196 note) ; and Tarquin the Proud was a son of the elder Tarquin, who was an Etruscan from Tarquinii (Livy, i. 34; Cicero, De re publica, ii. 19 sq., §§ 34 sq.) . The foreign birth of their kings naturally struck the Romans themselves. ”

“ Reign of LUCIUS TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS, or, THE PROUD, B.C. 534-510.—Tarquin commenced his reign without any of the forms of election. One of his first acts was to abolish all the privileges which had been conferred upon the Plebeians by Servius. He also compelled the poor to work at miserable wages upon his magnificent buildings, and the hardships which they suffered were so great that many put an end to their lives. But he did not confine his oppressions to the poor. All the senators and patricians whom he mistrusted, or whose wealth he coveted, were put to death or driven into exile. ”

“ After his expulsion, King Tarquin sent messengers to Rome to ask that his property should be given up to him, and the senate decreed that his prayer should be granted. But the king's ambassadors, while they were in Rome, stirred up the minds of the young men and others who had been favored by Tarquin, so that a plot was made to bring him back. Among those who plotted were Titus and Tiberius, the sons of the Consul Brutus; and they gave letters to the messengers of the king. But it chanced that a certain slave hid himself in the place where they met, and overheard them plotting ”

“ But within a few days Lucretius died, and in a new election Marcus Horatius succeeded in that honor, and continued consul for the remainder of the year. Now, whilst Tarquin was making preparations in Tuscany for a second war against the Romans, it is said a great portent occurred. When Tarquin was king, and had all but completed the buildings of the Capitol, designing, whether from oracular advice or his own pleasure, to erect an earthen chariot upon the top, he intrusted the workmanship to Tuscans of the city Veii, but soon after lost his kingdom. ”

“ This was insufficient to gratify the ambition of Tarquin; the princes were young, and an artful oration delivered to the people immediately transferred the crown of the deceased monarch on the head of Lucumon. The people had every reason to be satisfied with their choice. Tarquin reigned with moderation and popularity. He increased the number of the senate, and made himself friends by electing 100 new senators from the plebeians, whom he distinguished by the appellation of Patres minorum gentium, from those of the patrician body, who were called Patres majorum gentium. ”

“ XVI. Tarquin, after the great battle in which his son was slain by Brutus, took refuge at Clusium and begged Lars Porsena, the most powerful king in Italy, to assist him. He was thought to be an honourable and ambitious man, and promised his aid. First he sent an embassy to Rome, ordering them to receive Tarquin; and when the Romans refused to obey, he declared war against them, and telling them at what place and time he would attack them, marched against them with a great army. At Rome, Poplicola, though absent, was chosen consul for the second time, and with him, Titus Lucretius. ”

“ When it is recounted, that Tarquin undertook immense works, that he built the magnificent Capitoline temple, after having arranged the site for it, it is possible that he used the plebeians as his bondmen, that many of them committed suicide on that account, and that in order to prevent this he had the corpses fastened upon a cross. We must here proceed with caution and circumspection; the details will always remain uncertain, and all that cannot be set aside as impossible, is not therefore necessarily true. ”

“ Tarquin, called “the Proud,” set aside all the popular laws of Servius, and restored the privileges of the “houses”; but as soon as he felt secure in his power, he oppressed nobles and people alike. He compelled the poorer classes to toil upon the public works which his father had begun, and upon others which he himself originated. Such were the [255] permanent stone seats of the Circus Maximus, a new system of sewers, and the great Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. By wars or intrigues, Tarquin made himself supreme throughout Latium. But his insolence disgusted the patricians ”

“ When all around seemed safe and everybody fast asleep, he went in the frenzy of his passion with a naked sword to the sleeping Lucretia, and placing his left hand on her breast, said, "Silence, Lucretia! I am Sextus Tarquin, and I have a sword in my hand; if you utter a word, you shall die." When the woman, terrified out of her sleep, saw that no help was near, and instant death threatening her, Tarquin began to confess his passion, pleaded, used threats as well as entreaties, and employed every argument likely to influence a female heart. ”

“ Nevertheless the son of King Tarquin ceased not to cherish in his heart the hope of the kingdom; to which hope, indeed, he was the more stirred up by Tullia his wife. For now there sprang up in the palace of the kings of Rome a monstrous growth of wickedness, to the end, it may well be believed, that the people might, for hatred of kingship and its way, come the earlier to love liberty.
Now King Tarquin had two sons, this Lucius, of whom mention has been made, a haughty and violent man, and another, Aruns by name, that was of a quiet and gentle temper. ”

“ He himself united both rights in his own person; for he had married the daughter of his predecessor, Servius Tullius, and he was the son or grandson of Tarquin the Elder, [950] who preceded Servius Tullius on the throne. But in asserting his right to the crown, if we can trust Roman history on this point, Tarquin the Proud entirely ignored his claim to it through women as the son-in-law of his predecessor, and insisted only on his claim in the male line as the son or grandson of a former king. ”

“ In 510 a conspiracy was formed against Tarquin by BRUTUS, COLLATÍNUS, and others, and the gates of the city were closed against him. (Footnote: The cause of the conspiracy was the violence offered by Sextus, Tarquin's son, to Lucretia, wife of Collatínus. Unable to bear the humiliation, she killed herself in the presence of her family, having first appealed to them to avenge her wrongs) A Republic was then formed, with two Consuls at the head of the government.
Tarquin made three attempts to recover his power at Rome, all unsuccessful. ”

“ It is a very uncertain thing to seek allegories in historical statements, and to try and draw from them again historical facts. Thus as Ancus Marcius is the founder of the plebes, and the murder of Tarquin is said to have been brought about by the Marcii, one might surmise that Tarquin, who was one of the Luceres and had introduced them into the senate, had perished owing to rebellion of the plebeians. ”

“ After the defence of the bridge by Horatius, Lars Porsena laid siege to the city and at last reduced it to submission. He did not, however, insist upon the reinstatement of the Tarquins. A fourth and last attempt was made by Tarquin the Proud to regain the throne, by the aid of his Latin allies, under Mamilius of Tusculum. The story of this expedition forms the subject of The Battle of Lake Regulus.
I Lars [1] Porsena of Clusium [2]
By the Nine Gods [3] he swore
That the great house of Tarquin
Should suffer wrong no more. ”

“ They assembled in considerable numbers at daybreak; Tarquin kept his appointment, it is true, but did not arrive till shortly before sunset. The council spent the whole day in discussing many topics. Turnus Herdonius, from Aricia, had made a fierce attack on the absent Tarquin. It was no wonder, he said, that the epithet "Tyrant" had been bestowed upon him at Rome - for this was what people commonly called him, though only in whispers - could anything show the tyrant more than his thus trifling with the whole Latin nation? ”

“ Know that he will be in time to come a light in our darkness, and a succour to our house in its great trouble. Let us, therefore, use all favour and kindness to him." Thereafter they dealt with the lad as though he were free-born and not a slave, and gave him such teaching as befits them that are born to high place. The lad also, on his part, showed such parts and temper as befitted the house of a king; and when Tarquin would choose a husband for his daughter there was not found one fitter for such honour than Servius. So the King betrothed to him his daughter. ”