The stories of the Tarquin dynasty and the founding of the Roman Republic are legendary to a large degree, and it is unknown how closely traditions of the 1st-century BC era matched the actual history.
Book 2 of The History of Rome recounts beliefs about how Tarquin the Proud was expelled and his attempts to return with an allied army of Etruscans.
Livy also includes a duel to the death fought between Roman consul Lucius Junius Brutus and Tarquin's son Aruns, in which both died spearing the other.
It can also be seen as part of the Roman-Etruscan Wars, a series of conflicts between the Etruscan cities and the expanding Roman state.
The deposed king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, whose family originated from Tarquinii in Etruria, garnered the support of the Etruscan cities of Veii and Tarquinii, recalling to the former their regular losses of war and of land to the Roman state, and to the latter his family ties.