Roman Lives

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was anything but superb. His fall from the throne of Rome - and the foundation of the Republic - was momentous in and of itself. However, it would have an impact on the world that no one at the time could possibly have imagined. While it was no doubt his tyranny that laid the foundation for his ouster, it was (in the end) his son's rape of a married noble woman that would serve as the catalyst for it all. Superbus, in later centuries, would serve as the archetype of a tyrannical villain, and in his own way provided as much ammunition to the killers of Julius Caesar as Caesar himself.