Early Life and Family
Tarquin's parents were the fifth king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, and his wife Tanaquil. Both Tarquin and his brother Aruns married daughters of Servius Tullius, the sixth king; both daughters were named Tullia, by Roman custom. Tarquin's mother, Queen Tanaquil, had aided in the selection of Servius Tullius as heir to the Roman throne when Lucius Tarquinius Priscus was assassinated by the sons of the previous king, Ancus Marcius, in 579 BC. Tarquin also had a sister, Tarquinia, the mother of Lucius Junius Brutus.
According to Livy, the younger of the two daughters of Servius Tullius was of fiercer temperament than her sister, yet she originally married Aruns, who had a milder disposition than his elder brother. The younger Tullia came to despise Aruns and developed a plot with Tarquin. Together, they arranged the murder of their respective siblings, in quick succession, and were thereafter married to each other.
Tarquin had three sons: Titus, Aruns, and Sextus.
Read more about this topic: Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or family:
“Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.”
—Eudora Welty (b. 1909)
“The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse. Life is not a game with the sailor, demanding the long head—no intricate game of chess where few moves are made in straight-forwardness and ends are attained by indirection, an oblique, tedious, barren game hardly worth that poor candle burnt out in playing it.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one’s family and affairs.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)