Читать книгу A Social and Cultural History of Republican Rome - Группа авторов - Страница 24

In 509 BCE according to the Roman historians, Sextus Tarquinius developed a lust for Lucretia, the noble wife of one of his friends (Livy 1.58–60). Sextus’s family was originally Etruscan, from the territory just north of Rome, and his father Tarquin the Proud was then king of Rome and leading an army against a neighboring town. One evening while the Roman men were still away on this campaign, Sextus snuck into her house late at night and forced her to have sex with him. After he left, Lucretia sent for her husband Collatinus and her father. When they arrived with a few friends, she explained what had happened, then pulled a knife from under her dress and plunged it into her heart, falling dead on the ground in front of them. Brutus, one of the friends, drew the dripping knife out of Lucretia’s body and held it in front of him, swearing that he would drive the king and his family from Rome and not allow them or anyone else to rule as a king in Rome. The others joined with him, and together they aroused the anger of the people against the king and proceeded to drive him out of Rome. In place of the monarchy that had ruled Rome for the past two hundred and forty-two years, the Roman people created a new form of government, which we know today as the Roman Republic. Brutus was chosen to serve as one of the first two consuls, the chief magistrate of the new Republic and set the standard for later generations of Romans.