With no immediate source of aid, Lucretia was forced to listen to the strange proposition of Sextus as, ‘he said, “if you will consent to gratify me, I will make you my wife, and with me you shall reign, for the present, over the city my father has given me, and, after his death, over the Romans, the Latins, the Tyrrhenians, and all the other nations he rules for I know that I shall succeed to my father’s kingdom, as is right, since I am his eldest son”‘ (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities Book IV, 65, Thayer). He woke her, “he told her his name and bade her be silent and remain in the room, threatening to kill her if she attempted either to escape or to cry out” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities Book IV, 64, Thayer). Careful not to awake her slaves who slept by her door, he entered her room with his sword in his hand. While lodging at Lucretia’s home, Sextus woke late in the night and went to the room where he knew Lucretia slept. Sextus saw Lucretia as excelling above all the Roman women in beauty and in virtue and decided he would seduce her (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities Book IV, 64, Thayer). Lucretia was the wife of Collatinus (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities Book IV, Thayer, 64). In Collatia he stayed at the house of Tarquinius’ cousin – Lucius Tarquinius, surnamed Collatinus. The story of Lucretia begins with Sextus, the eldest son of Tarquinius, who was sent by his father to a city called Collatia to perform military services. Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ Account in Roman Antiquities Book IV The account of her rape differs within each story. Despite this belief, her existence is written about by Livy in Ab Urbe Condita Libri and by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in Roman Antiquities Book IV, suggesting her story has merit despite the possibility of it being exaggerated. To many modern historians, Lucretia was a mythological figure (Joshel, 2008, pg. For centuries, Lucretia’s rape would be the topic of numerous poems, artworks, and operas. Her rape would mark the beginning of the Roman Republic, forever affecting Rome itself and all its people.
In antiquity, the rape of Lucretia is one of the most significant occurrences of violence against women.
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