(And/Or) Lucretia is a famous figure in Roman legend/history (via Livy). If I remember properly from Latin class, the story goes that her husband was camped out with Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (the last king of Rome), and all the men were telling stories of their wives at home. Lucretia's husband bragged that if they went to his house right now, his wife would have the house perfectly decorated and cleaned, would be looking beautiful, and would be able to have a fantastic meal on the table for them in minutes. The men decided to take him up on it, and she was as wonderful a woman as he had bragged. After they all returned to the road, the king returned and raped her. Lucretia was an honorable woman, and, by the (double) standards of those times, this meant that she felt incredibly shamed by the rape and couldn't face the idea of continuing to live. She summoned her husband and sons and told them of the rape, and, asking them to avenge her, killed herself before them. The rebellion that followed is mythically credited as being the end of the Roman monarchy and the beginning of the republic.
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Date: 2005-11-29 11:04 am (UTC)/history lesson