In time, Tarquin felt ready to seize the throne. He bestowed presents upon them, and spread criticism of Servius the king. Tarquin solicited the support of the patrician senators, especially those from families who had received their senatorial rank under Tarquin the Elder. Tullia encouraged her husband to advance his own position, ultimately persuading him to usurp Servius. Servius Tullius, 16th-century depiction published by Guillaume Rouillé / Wikimedia Commons Together, they had three sons: Titus, Arruns, and Sextus, and a daughter, Tarquinia, who married Octavius Mamilius, the prince of Tusculum. After the murder of their spouses, Tarquin and Tullia were married. She came to despise him, and conspired with Tarquin to bring about the deaths of Tullia Major and Arruns. Her younger sister, Tullia Minor, was of fiercer temperament, but her husband Arruns was not. The elder sister, Tullia Major, was of mild disposition, yet married the ambitious Tarquin. One of Tarquin’s sisters, Tarquinia, married Marcus Junius Brutus, and was the mother of Lucius Junius Brutus, one of the men who would later lead the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom. To forestall further dynastic strife, Servius married his daughters, known to history as Tullia Major and Tullia Minor, to Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the future king, and his brother Arruns. This may recollect an otherwise forgotten attempt by the sons of Tarquin the Elder to reclaim the throne. Īccording 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. When the sons of Marcius subsequently arranged the elder Tarquin’s assassination in 579 BC, Tanaquil placed Servius Tullius on the throne, in preference to her own sons. Tanaquil had engineered her husband’s succession to the Roman kingdom on the death of Ancus Marcius. Tarquin was said to be the son or grandson of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, and Tanaquil.

His reign is described as a tyranny that justified the abolition of the monarchy. Tarquin was said to have been 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. Īncient accounts of the regal period mingle history and legend. He is commonly known as Tarquin the Proud, from his cognomen Superbus (Latin for “proud, arrogant, lofty”). Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (died 495 BC) was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning from 535 BC until the popular uprising in 509 BC that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, 16th-century depiction published by Guillaume Rouillé / Wikimedia Commons

Brutus and collatinus