Tarquinius

Tarquinius, the family name of two kings of Rome, derived from the Etruscan city of Tarquinii—and doubtless implying the domination of that city over a district south of the Tiber. The first, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, is said to have reigned at Rome 616-578 B.C., and to have considerably modified the constitution, and to have begun the Servian agger and the Circus Maximus.—Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (534-510), the seventh and last king of Rome, was a capable but intolerable despot, the chief events of whose reign are given at ROME (Vol. VIII. p. 787). See LUCRETIA.