Holding the bloody dagger drawn from Lucretia’s breast, Brutus addresses the Roman people and convinces them to banish the king (who was at that time away from the city) and to abolish the monarchy altogether. They agree to avenge her and reassure her that she has done nothing to deserve this, but to make sure no one thinks she went along with the rape willingly - to prevent other women from citing her name to exonerate themselves, in fact - Lucretia kills herself on the spot. After he leaves, Lucretia calls in her husband, Tarquinius Collatinus, who happens to be the king’s cousin, and Lucius Junius Brutus, the king’s son-in-law, and she tells them what has happened, demanding that they avenge her honor. No, their downfall comes when Sextus catches sight of Lucretia, a beautiful matron of impeccable virtue and chastity, and decides he has to have her. But that’s not what gets them overthrown. Sextus supports his father’s regime by massacring the entire upper class of a neighboring town, Gabii. Tarquinius murders his political opponents in secret or openly, forces the Romans to become construction workers in his quest to monumentalize the city, and generally rules through fear and violence.

The tyrannical seventh (and last) king of early Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, has an equally despicable son, Sextus. For Livy in particular, a Roman historian of the 1st century BCE, sexual violence is a catalyst for regime change - not once, but twice in Rome’s early history.

Brutus pressured collatinus