The last Etruscan king in Rome was according to tradition called Tarquinius Superbus, that is, Tarquin the Proud, a name that characterizes him as a man of ambition and important achievements—for instance, he is credited with having completed the building of the great temple of Jupiter on the Capitol—but also as a tyrant. Certainly, in legend he was portrayed as such, and it was his tyrannical behavior, it was said, that led a group of Roman aristocrats to mount a coup, expel the tyrant, and abolish the kingship altogether, thus founding the Roman Republic. But we do not know what really happened. We may assume, though, that the last Etruscan king was driven out of Rome in a rebellion of Roman aristocrats against a regime that in their view had become too much of an autocracy.
Roman tradition dates the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus in the year 510 BC, making it contemporaneous with the expulsion of the turannos Hippias from Athens. In later times, at least, a clear parallel was seen between the two events. In reality, the end of Roman kingship must have occurred a little later, at around 506 BC (according to some historians, it was even considerably later, at around 475 BC; the chronology of this period is still debated). Together with the change of power in Rome, the Etruscans also lost their grip on other regions. Around 500 BC, they lost their influence in Latium, and after a defeat against a Greek force, they were driven from Campania. In Rome, the Etruscans left a clear heritage: apart from the insignia of royalty already mentioned, which after the fall of the monarchy would be transferred to the highest magistrates of the republic, we may point to various religious customs, especially the art of interpretation of the livers of sacrificial victims and other signs of the divine will, and to the Etruscan alphabet that was adopted by the Romans and became the so-called Latin alphabet (which is the same as our modern alphabet).
World History
