Home › T › Tarquinius (LUCIUS surnamed SUPERBUS)

Tarquinius (LUCIUS surnamed SUPERBUS)

LUCIUS, surnamed SUPERBUS ("the proud"), the last of the legendary kings of Rome, was the son of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. Tarquin, on reaching man's estate, murdered his father-in-law, King Servius Tullius (the date usually given for this event is 534 B. c.), and assumed the regal dignity.

He abolished the privileges conferred on the plebeians; banished or put to death the senators whom he suspected, never filled up the vacancies in the senate, and rarely consulted that body. He con- TARQUINIUS tinued the great works of his father, and advanced the power of Rome abroad both by wars and alliances. By the marriage of his daughter with Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, the most powerful of the Latin chiefs, and other political measures, he caused himself to be recognized as the head of the Latin confederacy.

After a reign of nearly 25 years a conspiracy broke out by which he and his family were exiled from Rome (510 B. C.), an infamous action of his son Sextus being part of the cause of the outbreak (see LUCRETIA). He tried repeatedly, without success, to regain his power, and at length died in Cumæ in 495 в. c.