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| Collatinus | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus |
| Birth date | c. 740 BC |
| Death date | c. 716 BC |
| Known for | Role in the overthrow of the Roman monarchy |
| Nationality | Roman |
| Occupation | Statesman, one of the first Roman consuls |
Collatinus was an early Roman aristocrat and one of the first two consuls traditionally credited with founding the Roman Republic after the expulsion of the Tarquin kings. He is best known for his association with the overthrow of the monarchy following the incident involving Lucretia and for his forced resignation and exile shortly after his election, events that shaped early Republican institutions and elite politics.
Collatinus appears in Roman tradition as a leading figure alongside Lucius Junius Brutus and opponents of the Tarquinius Superbus regime. He is linked to the episode of Lucretia that precipitated the end of the kingship, the establishment of the consulship, and the creation of measures to limit monarchical power, including ostracism of perceived royalists such as members of the Tarquin family. Sources portray him interacting with figures like Publius Valerius Publicola, Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Titus Junius Brutus, and embroilment in controversies involving Etruria and Veii.
Traditional accounts place Collatinus in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC amid the collapse of the Roman kingdom and the rise of republican institutions. Narratives situate him in the milieu of Rome during the reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, with contemporaries including Servius Tullius and aristocrats from the Tarquinia and Etruscan League circles. Ancient historians such as Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, and later compilers like Dion Cassius and Festus relay episodes linking Collatinus to the aftermath of the Rape of Lucretia and the revolt that involved citizens, patrician families, and civic institutions like the Comitia Curiata and nascent Comitia Centuriata.
Ancient Roman naming conventions frame Collatinus within the context of praenomen, nomen, and cognomen practices similar to those of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Tullius Cicero, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. His nomen indicates ties to gens structures comparable to Tarquinii and Lucretia gens usages attested in inscriptions from Oscan and Latin speaking communities in the Italian Peninsula, including evidence preserved by grammarians like Varro and commentators such as Aulus Gellius. Philological discussion connects his name-forms to onomastic patterns explored by scholars like Theodor Mommsen, Eduard Meyer, Franz Cumont, and Georg Wissowa.
Accounts of Collatinus evolve across sources from annalistic chronologies to moralized biographies. Early lists of magistrates in the Fasti Capitolini and narratives in Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus present variant reasons for his resignation, reflecting political concerns about royal association with Tarquinius Collatinus's family links to Tarquinius Superbus and pressures from figures like Lucius Junius Brutus and Publius Valerius Publicola. Later Republican and Imperial writers including Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio reinterpret the episode within debates about virtue exemplified by models such as Cincinnatus and censuring tendencies represented by Appius Claudius Caecus.
Collatinus's brief consulship and exile influenced Roman constitutional development, the handling of aristocratic families, and precedents for dealing with perceived threats to the Commonwealth. His story features in rhetorical and historiographical traditions alongside paradigms like Lucretia, Horatius Cocles, and Mucius Scaevola, and it informed medieval and Renaissance readings by authors such as Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Niccolò Machiavelli, and William Shakespeare where Roman exempla shaped political thought. Modern historians including Theodor Mommsen, Fustel de Coulanges, T. Robert S. Broughton, R. M. Ogilvie, Tim Cornell, and Gary Forsythe assess Collatinus in discussions of early Republican chronology and aristocratic conflict.
Primary literary attestations derive from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita, Dionysius of Halicarnassus's Roman Antiquities, and biographical treatments in Plutarch's Lives and summaries in Dion Cassius. Annalistic fragments appear in the Fasti Capitolini and in commentaries by Festus, Aulus Gellius, and Varro. Epigraphic context emerges from inscriptions catalogued by Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum and manuscript traditions preserved in medieval codices associated with Beda, Isidore of Seville, and chroniclers like Paul the Deacon and Geoffrey of Monmouth who transmitted Roman exempla into medieval Europe.
Modern editions and studies of Collatinus-related material appear in critical texts of Livy (editions by Perseus Project compilers and scholars such as B. O. Foster and H. J. Edwards), annotated translations by Dionysius of Halicarnassus specialists like E. Cary and E. D. Gardner, and monographs on early Rome by Tim Cornell, T. J. Cornell, Gary Forsythe, T. Robert S. Broughton, and Kathleen M. Coleman. Philological and historiographical debates continue in journals such as Classical Quarterly, Journal of Roman Studies, Mnemosyne, and Historia, and in reference works including Oxford Classical Dictionary, Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, and Cambridge Ancient History. Modern archaeological contributions from Rome, Veii, Tarquinia, and fieldwork by teams associated with British School at Rome, American Academy in Rome, and Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma inform reassessments of the early Republic and figures connected to Collatinus.
Category:Roman Republic Category:Ancient Roman politicians