Sextus Tarquinius

According to Livy, Tarquinius Superbus was having problems capturing the town of Gabii, so he sent Sextus to trick them into thinking he was defecting.

They then hastened to Collatia, and there, though it was late in the night, they found Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, spinning amid her handmaids.

He forced her to yield to his sexual advances by telling her the alternative was that he would kill her and one of her slaves, place their bodies together, and claim he had defended her husband's honour when he caught her having adulterous sex.

[6] The Roman tradition then has Sextus Tarquinius flee to Gabii, seeking safe haven but he was killed in revenge for his past actions.

(Act 2 Scene 1, Lines 5-6)In Shakespeare's history play Julius Caesar (Act 2, Scene 1), the character Brutus reflects on his ancestor's role in overthrowing Tarquin's father and the monarchy: … Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?What, Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome the Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king.Tarquin, under his first name Sextus, is present with the Etruscan army in Thomas Babington Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, when Lars Porsena, King of Clusium, attempts to restore the Tarquin dynasty to the Roman throne: By the right wheel rode Mamilius, prince of the Latian name, And by the left false Sextus, who wrought the deed of shame.