Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (died 495 BC) was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning 25 years until the popular uprising that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic.

Tarquin was said to have been either the son or grandson of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, and to have gained the throne through the murders of both his wife and his elder brother, followed by the assassination of his predecessor, Servius Tullius.

[4] According to an Etruscan tradition, the hero Macstarna, usually equated with Servius Tullius, defeated and killed a Roman named Gnaeus Tarquinius, and rescued the brothers Caelius and Aulus Vibenna from captivity.

[9] When word of this brazen deed reached Servius, he hurried to the curia to confront Tarquin, who levelled the same accusations against his father-in-law, and then in his youth and vigour carried the king outside and flung him down the steps of the senate house and into the street.

The king's retainers fled, and as he made his way towards the palace, the aged Servius was set upon and murdered by Tarquin's assassins, perhaps on the advice of his own daughter.

The king's blood spattered against the chariot and stained Tullia's clothes, so that she brought a gruesome relic of the murder back to her house.

It was agreed that the soldiers of the Latins would attend at the grove on an appointed day, and form a united military force with the Roman army.

He celebrated a triumph, and with the spoils of this conquest, he commenced the erection of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, which Tarquin the Elder had vowed.

The infatuated inhabitants entrusted him with the command of their troops, and when he had obtained the unlimited confidence of the citizens, he sent a messenger to his father to inquire how he should deliver the city into his hands.

Sextus took the hint, and put to death, or banished on false charges, all the leading men of Gabii, after which he had no difficulty in compelling the city to submit.

[15] At Rome, Tarquin levelled the top of the Tarpeian Rock, overlooking the Forum, and removed a number of ancient Sabine shrines to make way for the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill.

At that time, the Rutuli were a very wealthy nation, and Tarquin was keen to obtain the spoils that would come with victory, in hopes of assuaging the ire of his subjects.

With his companions, they secretly visited each other's homes, and discovered all of the wives enjoying themselves, except for Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, who was engaged in domestic activities.

Lucretia received the princes graciously, and together her beauty and virtue kindled the flame of desire in Collatinus' cousin, Sextus Tarquinius, the king's son.

When she refused, he threatened that if she did not yield herself to him, he would kill her, and claim that he had discovered her in the act of adultery with a slave, for which reason he had slain the unfaithful Lucretia, delivering the punishment as her husband's kinsman.

Her grieving husband, together with his father-in-law, Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, and his companions, Lucius Junius Brutus and Publius Valerius, swore an oath to expel the king and his family from Rome.

In a surprising reversal, Brutus demanded that his colleague Collatinus resign the consulship and go into exile because he bore the hated name of Tarquinius.

[24] Meanwhile, the king sent ambassadors to the senate, ostensibly to request the return of his personal property, but in reality to subvert a number of Rome's leading men.

Porsena's march on Rome and the valiant defence of the Romans achieved legendary status, giving rise to the story of Horatius at the bridge, and the bravery of Gaius Mucius Scaevola.

Accounts vary as to whether Porsena finally entered Rome, or was thwarted, but modern scholarship suggests that he was able to occupy the city briefly before withdrawing.

[27] Tarquin's final attempt to regain the Roman kingdom came in 499 or 496 BC, when he persuaded his son-in-law, Octavius Mamilius, dictator of Tusculum, to march on Rome at the head of a Latin army.

Toward the end of his speech, he inserted as a rhetorical flourish a comparison between King George III and various historical figures who were brought low by their enemies, including Charles I, Caesar, and, in some accounts, Tarquin.

[32] The cultural phenomenon known as "tall poppy syndrome," in which persons of unusual merit are attacked or resented because of their achievements, derives its name from the episode in Livy in which Tarquin is said to have instructed his son Sextus to weaken the city of Gabii by destroying its leading men.