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Collatinus rape of lucretia3/20/2023 ![]() ![]() Our sources give slightly different tellings of the story: Dionysius of Halicarnassus depicts her as utterly distraught, fearing that her family will think she was to blame, Livy presents her with a calm anger as she explains what happened, Cassius Dio focuses on her desire for revenge. On their arrival, she relates the events. She sent a messenger to her husband and to her father, asking them to bring a witness to hear what she urgently needed to tell them. He sneaks into Lucretia’s room late at night and rapes her, then leaves. Tarquin uses the situation to exact his revenge on his cousin. She arranges a room for him to stay overnight, so that he might be able to see Collatinus as soon as he arrives the next day. Lucretia tells him her husband is not expected until the next day, but still welcomes him into the home as befitting a member of Collatinus’ family. Sextus Tarquin leaves angrily, thinking of ways he could embarrass his cousin equal to what he had experienced.Ī few days later, he returns to Collatinus’ house on the pretense of a pressing meeting with him. Bursting through the door, the men find Lucretia sitting quietly, sewing by the hearth, the epitome of Roman female virtue. Collatinus is unconcerned-he knows and trusts his wife and that faith is borne out. Tarquin was embarrassed and demands they go next to Collatinus’ home. The first house where they stop is that of the younger Tarquin, whose wife is hosting a gathering with some of her friends, in which they were gossiping and drinking. They decide to go home early and surprise them. Well into their cups, they argue about who has the best wife, and decide the most effective way to answer the question is to see what their wives were doing while the men were gone. In 510 BCE, the son of King Tarquin, Sextus Tarquin (or Tarquin the Younger) went out with some friends, including a cousin named Lucius Collatinus. We know this because it is his, and his son’s, actions that usher in the Roman Republic. They are, for the most part, shrouded in myth, but the last, Tarquinius Superbius (Tarquin the Proud), is definitely an historical figure. After the founding of Rome by Romulus, the city was ruled by seven kings. ![]()
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