Tarquinius Priscus
Tarquinius Priscus was, by tradition, the fifth king of Rome and the first of Etruscan origin. The tradition makes him the son of a Corinthian exile who settled at Tarquinii in Etruria, where his foreign descent barred him from office. His ambitious wife Tanaquil persuaded him to move to Rome, where a stranger could rise, and an eagle is said to have lifted his cap and replaced it as they approached the city — which she read as a portent of kingship. He became a friend and adviser of King Ancus Marcius, was appointed guardian of his sons, and secured his own election by sending them away on a hunting trip while he canvassed. He is credited with a series of works that turned a hill settlement into a city. He drained the marshy ground between the hills with the Cloaca Maxima, which made the Forum usable as a public space; laid out the Circus Maximus in the valley; began the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline; and built the first stone walls. He is also said to have increased the senate by a hundred members, to have added centuries to the cavalry, and to have introduced Etruscan insignia of office — the curule chair, the fasces carried by lictors, the purple-bordered toga and the triumph. He fought the Sabines and the Latins successfully. Ancus Marcius's sons, cheated of the succession, hired two shepherds who staged a quarrel before him and killed him with an axe. Tanaquil concealed his death until Servius Tullius was established.
- Lived: 700 BCE – 579 BCE
- Nationality: Roman
- Roles: king, builder
