HIST 323 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Trojan War, Well-Order, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
4 Aug 2019
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History 323 Notes
Feb. 14 2017
Livy’s History of Rome
- celebration of Rome
- story serves to tell about the end of the Monarchy and beginning of the Republic
- he wrote about the history of Rome from ancient times until his own day – wrote
extensively
- he created narrative to fulfil function of Romantus (what it means to be a Roman)
- set the stage of who “we” “Romans” are
- wrote rape stories
o had to do with myths of female honour
o marriage is central in these stories
o lament for what was lost and what was lost in status
▪ what has been lost is central to Roman literature – what could
never be regained
• IE: microcosm is how romans think of the Domus but also
recognize they cannot have it anymore
▪ theme of decay = sexual in nature
- Livy traces development of Rome like Virgil does in Greece
o Rome finds its origins in Trojan war → starts as long addendum to the fall
of Troy
- Rape of Sabine women was necessary in these stories because it allowed for the
growth of a state
o Cannot grow unless there is reproduction
o The idea of rape = rapio/ere or rapto/are = means to seize/carry off
▪ Therefore rape here means to be taken → to run off with them [the
women]
- Livy describes a rape scene in great detail/elaboration
- the women who were taken would then live in honourable wedlock and give
affection to those who took them
o therefore, once taken you were offered marriage and the ability to
produce freeborn children. If you denied this, you were put into slavery
o dilemma: the captured woman stands between her husband and father. By
accepting those who took them they turn against their natal home, but if
they turn against their husband they become slaves, and in turn, turn
against their natal home
o bodies needed to be raped to secure growth of Rome
- The Rape of Lucretia – Livy
o Allegedly this “event” is what turned Rome from a monarchy to a
Republican government
o Everyone had hailed the king because they were suppressed
o One day when the young men were drinking at the house of Sextus
Tarquinius, after a supper where they had dined with the son of Egerius,
Conlatinus, they fell to talking about their wives, and each man fell to
praising his wife to excess. Finally Conlatinus declared that there was no
need to argue; they might all be sure that no one was more worthy than his
Lucretia. "Young and vigorous as we are, why don't we go get out horses
and go and see for ourselves what our wives are doing? And we will base
our judgement on whatever we see them doing when their husbands arrive
unannounced." Encouraged by the wine, "Yes, let's go!" they all cried, and
they went on horseback to the city.
▪ The only “pure” one, who was doing womanly chores was
Lucretia, wife of Conlatinus
▪ Sextus noticed this and became enamored with the innocence and
purity of Lucretia
• Purity aroused sexual desire
o Sextus went to her while her husband was out and demanded that she
submit to him
▪ Many phallic references
o Threatened that if she does not submit he would rape and kill her and then
kill a slave and put the slave in bed next to her to ruin her reputation
▪ Ruins her reputation, and makes her look adulterous
▪ Therefore, this is not a physical rape but a rape against honor
▪ she agrees, for fear of her reputation
o Once the husband was back she summoned him and her father. She told
them what had happened. She said that her body was defiled but not her
mind. Her mind never submitted
▪ She wanted the two men to get their revenge on him
▪ She wanted to kill herself because “no woman made unchaste
should be allowed to live”
• This was an honor killing in which the principle was
expressed by a woman. The guilt of the murder is thus
taken off the hands of the two men and placed solely in
hers
• “No woman shall use Lucretia as her example in dishonor”
▪ “By this blood, which was so pure before the crime of the prince, I
swear before you, O gods, to chase the King Lucius Tarquinius
Superbus, with his criminal wife and all their offspring, by fire,
iron, and all the methods I have at my disposal, and never to
tolerate Kings in Rome evermore, whether of that family of any
other."
• Thus ending the monarchy in Rome
o We see here how a personal crisis became a crisis of the state
Marriage
- Concordia – expresses the ideal relationship between husband an wife
o Sine discrime = no division between them
o Sine offensio = no disrespect
o Sine ulla querelia = no arguments
o Term of marital love on quiet side but they govern domus as one mind
- Univera = one woman man
