3-097-416 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Origin of the Roman Republic (598 BCE), 1877. The scene represents the moment when the lifeless body of Lucretia rests on the steps of the temple, mourned by two women and surrounded by Lucretius, Publius Valerius, Collatinus and Brutus, who, taking an inert arm of the corpse and raising his dagger high, swears revenge against the king, a purpose to which the unrestrained crowd unanimously responds by raising their arms, thus implying the end of the Roman monarchy. The overthrow of the Roman monarchy took place between the 6th and 5th centuries BCE where a political revolution replaced the then-existing Roman monarchy under Lucius Tarquinius Superbus with a republic. The traditional account portrays a dynastic struggle in which the king's second son, Sextus Tarquinius, rapes a noblewoman, Lucretia. Upon revealing the assault to some Roman noblemen, she kills herself. The Roman noblemen, led by Lucius Junius Brutus, obtain the support of the Roman aristocracy and the people to expel the king and his family and create a republic. Later Roman historians presented a narrative of the events, traditionally dated to c509 BCE, but it is largely believed by modern scholars to be fictitious.