User:Tjna57/Lucretia

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Lucrecia, 1525, Monogrammist I.W. active in the Cranach studio c. 1520–40. Lucretia wielding a dagger before her suicide.

According to Roman tradition, Lucretia (/luːˈkriːʃə/ loo-KREE-shə, Classical Latin: [lʊˈkreːtɪ.a]; died c. 510 BC), anglicized as Lucrece, was a noblewoman in ancient Rome, whose rape by Sextus Tarquinius (Tarquin), and subsequent suicide precipitated a rebellion that overthrew the Roman monarchy and led to the transition of Roman government from a kingdom to a republic.[1] The incident kindled the flames of dissatisfaction over the tyrannical methods of Tarquin's father, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome. As a result, the prominent families instituted a republic, drove the extensive royal family of Tarquin from Rome, and successfully defended the republic against attempted Etruscan and Latin intervention.[1]

There are no contemporary sources of Lucretia and the event. Information regarding Lucretia, her rape and suicide, and the consequence of this being the start of the Roman Republic, come from the accounts of Roman historian Livy and Greco-Roman historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus approximately 500 years later. Secondary sources on the establishment of the republic reiterate the basic events of Lucretia's story, though accounts vary slightly between historians. The evidence points to the historical existence of a woman named Lucretia and an event that played a critical part in the downfall of the monarchy. However, specific details are debatable and vary depending on the writer. According to modern sources, Lucretia's narrative is considered a part of Roman mythohistory.[2] Much like the rape of the Sabine women, Lucretia's story provides explanation for historical change in Rome through a recounting of sexual assault against women.

Early life and marriage[edit]

Willem de Poorter's Lucrèce à l'ouvrage (1633). A less common depiction of Lucretia weaving with her ladies.

Lucretia was the daughter of magistrate Spurius Lucretius and the wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus.[1] The marriage between Lucretia and Collatinus was depicted as the ideal Roman union, as both Lucretia and Collatinus were faithfully devoted to one another. According to Livy, Lucretia was an exemplar of "beauty and purity," as well as Roman standard.[1] While her husband was away at battle, Lucretia would stay at home and pray for his safe return. Similar to Livy, Dionysius' depiction of Lucretia separates her from the rest of Roman women in a story about the men returning home from a battle. The narrative begins with a bet between the sons of Tarquinius and their kinsmen, Brutus and Collantinus. The men fight over which of their wives best exemplified sophrosyne, an ideal of superb moral and intellectual character.[3] The men return home to find the women socializing with each other, presumably drinking and in conversation. In contrast, they find Lucretia home alone, working with her wool in silence. Because of her devotion to her husband, Roman writers Livy and Dionysus outline Lucretia as the role model for Roman girls.[4]

Rape[edit]

As the events of the story move rapidly, the date of the Lucretia's rape is most likely the same year as the first of the fasti. Dionysius of Halicarnassus sets this year "at the beginning of the sixty-eighth Olympiad ... Isagoras being the annual archon at Athens";[5] that is, 508/507 BC. According to Dionysius, Lucretia therefore died in 508 BC. This approximate date is met with consensus by other historians; however, the exact year is debatable within a range of about five years.[6]

While engaged in the siege of Ardea, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome, sent his son, Tarquin, on a military errand to Collatia. Tarquin was received with great hospitality at the governor's mansion, home of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, son of the king's nephew, Arruns Tarquinius, former governor of Collatia and first of the Tarquinii Collatini. Spurius Lucretius, father of Collatinus' wife Lucretia and prefect of Rome,[7] made sure that the king's son was treated as a guest and a figure of his rank.

Titian's Tarquin and Lucretia (1571). A depiction of Lucretia's rape by Sextus Tarquinius.

In a variant of the story,[8] Tarquin and Collatinus, at a wine party on furlough, were debating the virtues of wives when Collatinus volunteered to settle the debate. In order to do so, he proposed riding to his home to observe Lucretia. Upon their arrival, she was weaving with her maids. The party awarded her the palm of victory and Collatinus invited them to stay, but for the time being they returned to camp.[1]

Later in the night, Tarquin entered Lucretia's bedroom, quietly going around the slaves who were sleeping at her door. When she awoke, he identified himself and offered her two choices: she could submit to his sexual advances and become his wife and future queen, or he would kill her and one of her slaves and place the bodies together, then claim he had caught her having adulterous sex (see sexuality in ancient Rome for Roman attitudes toward sex). In the alternative story, he returned from camp a few days later with one companion to take Collatinus up on his invitation to visit and was lodged in a guest bedroom. He entered Lucretia's room while she lay naked in her bed and started to wash her belly with water, which woke her up. Tarquin tried to convince Lucretia that she should be with him, using "every argument likely to influence a female heart."[9]However, Lucretia stood firm in her devotion to her husband, even when Tarquin threatened her life and honor, while ultimately raping her.

Suicide[edit]

The account of Dionysius of Halicarnassus[edit]

In Dionysius of Halicarnassus' account, the following day Lucretia dressed in black and went to her father's house in Rome and cast herself down in the supplicant's position (embracing the knees), weeping in front of her father and husband. She asked to explain herself and insisted on summoning witnesses before she told them about her rape. After disclosing the rape, she asked them for vengeance, a plea that could not be ignored because she was speaking to the chief magistrate of Rome. While the men debated the proper course of action, Lucretia drew a concealed dagger and stabbed herself in the heart. She died in her father's arms, while the women present lamented her death. According to Dionysius, "This dreadful scene struck the Romans who were present with so much horror and compassion that they all cried out with one voice that they would rather die a thousand deaths in defense of their liberty than suffer such outrages to be committed by the tyrants."[10]

The account of Livy[edit]

In Livy's version, Lucretia did not go to Rome, but instead sent for her father and her husband, asking them to bring one friend each to act as a witness. Those selected were Publius Valerius Publicola from Rome and Lucius Junius Brutus from the camp at Ardea. The men found Lucretia in her room and she explained what had happened to her. After exacting an oath of vengeance—"Pledge me your solemn word that the adulterer shall not go unpunished"—[11]while the men were discussing the matter, she drew a thrusting knife and stabbed herself in the heart.

The account of Dio[edit]

In Dio's version, Lucretia's request for revenge is: "And, whereas I (for I am a woman) shall act in a manner which is fitting for me: you, if you are men, and if you care for your wives and children, exact vengeance on my behalf and free your selves and show the tyrants what sort of woman they outraged, and what sort of men were her menfolk!"[12] She follows her statement by plunging the dagger into her chest and promptly dying.

Revolution[edit]

Brutus was the Tribune of the Celeres, a minor office of some religious duties, which as a magistracy gave him the theoretical power to summon the curiae, an organization of patrician families used mainly to ratify the decrees of the king. Summoning them on the spot, he transformed the crowd into an authoritative legislative assembly and began to address them in one of the more noted and effective speeches of ancient Rome.

He began by revealing that his pose as fool was a sham designed to protect him against an evil king. He levelled a number of charges against the king and his family: the outrage against Lucretia, whom everyone could see on the dais, the king's tyranny, the forced labor of the plebeians in the ditches and sewers of Rome.[1] In his speech, he pointed out that Superbus had come to rule by the murder of Servius Tullius, his wife's father, next-to-the-last king of Rome. He "solemnly invoked the gods as the avengers of murdered parents."[1] He suggested that the king's wife, Tullia, was in fact in Rome and probably was a witness to the proceedings from her palace near the forum. Seeing herself the target of so much animosity, she fled from the palace in fear of her life and proceeded to the camp at Ardea.[13]

Brutus opened a debate on the form of government Rome ought to have, a debate at which many patricians spoke. In summation, he proposed the banishment of the Tarquins from all the territories of Rome and appointment of an interrex to nominate new magistrates and conduct an election of ratification. They decided on a republican form of government with two consuls in place of a king executing the will of a patrician senate. This was a temporary measure until they could consider the details more carefully. Brutus renounced all right to the throne. In subsequent years, the powers of the king were divided among various elected magistracies.

The constitutional consequences of this event ended the reign of the hereditary king; however, later emperors were absolute rulers in all but name.This constitutional tradition prevented both Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus from accepting a crown; instead, they had to devise a confluence of several republican offices onto their persons in order to secure absolute power. Their successors both in Rome and in Constantinople adhered to this tradition in essence, and the office of German Holy Roman Emperor remained elective rather than hereditary—up to its abolition in the Napoleonic Wars, over 2300 years later.

Subject in art[edit]

Since the Renaissance, the suicide of Lucretia has been an enduring subject for visual artists, including Titian, Rembrandt, Dürer, Raphael, Botticelli, Jörg Breu the Elder, Johannes Moreelse, Artemisia Gentileschi, Damià Campeny, Eduardo Rosales, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and others. Most commonly, either the moment of the rape is shown or Lucretia is shown alone at the moment of her suicide. In either situation, her clothing is loosened or absent, while Tarquin is normally clothed.

The subject was one of a group showing women from legend or the Bible who were either powerless, such as Susannaand Verginia, or only able to escape their situations by suicide, such as Dido of Carthage and Lucretia.[14] These formed a counterpoint to, or sub-group of, the set of subjects known as the Power of Women, showing female violence against, or domination of, men. These were often depicted by the same artists, and especially popular in Northern Renaissance art. The story of Esther lay somewhere between these two extremes.[15]

The subject of Lucretia spinning with her ladies is sometimes depicted, as in a series of four engravings of her story by Hendrick Goltzius, which also includes a banquet.[16]

Examples with articles

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book I. 57-60". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ Donaldson, Ian (1982). The Rapes of Lucretia: A Myth and Its Transformations. New York: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ Mallan, C (2014). "THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA IN CASSIUS DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY". The Classical Quarterly. 64 (2 ed.): 758–771.
  4. ^ Wiseman, T.P (1998). "Roman Republic, Year One". Greece and Rome. 45 (1 ed.): 19–26.
  5. ^ D.H. V.1.
  6. ^ Cornell, Tim. (1995). The beginnings of Rome : Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-01596-0. OCLC 31515793.
  7. ^ D.H. IV.64.
  8. ^ T.L. I.57.
  9. ^ Briscoe, John, 1938- (1973). A commentary on Livy, books XXXI-XXXIII. Oxford,: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-814442-3. OCLC 768261.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ D.H. IV.66.
  11. ^ T.L. I.58.
  12. ^ Mallan, C (2014). "THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA IN CASSIUS DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY". The Classical Quarterly. 64 (2 ed.): 758–771.
  13. ^ T.L. I.59.
  14. ^ Russell, Nos 1–14
  15. ^ Russell, Nos 1, 15, 16
  16. ^ British Museum, Story of Lucretia.

Sources[edit]

  • Dionysius of Halicarnassus (2007) [1939]. "Book IV, sections 64–85". In Thayer, William (ed.). Roman Antiquities. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Cary, Earnest. Cambridge MA, Chicago: Harvard University, University of Chicago.
  • Donaldson, Ian (1982). The Rapes of Lucretia: A Myth and Its Transformations. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Livy (1912). "Book I, sections 57-60" in History of Rome. English Translation by Rev. Canon Roberts. New York: E.P. Dutton and Co.
  • Russell, H. D., & Barnes, B. (1990). Eva/Ave: Women in Renaissance and Baroque Prints. National Gallery of Art.
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