When Roman historians speak about archaic Rome, from 6th to 4th century they speak of the change of social order from monarchy to Republic and in Republic, the change from patrician monopoly to the inclusion of plebians in political power. These two changes are significant changes for the 1st century historians. Interestingly both these stories are intrinsically connected with rape of a virtuous woman.
The first rape story is about Lucretia. Lucretia was the wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was sent by his father to stay in the governer's mansion on a military errand. The governer's mansion was the home of Lucretia and Collatinus. Knowing that she was identified as the virtuous woman of all Rome he was attracted to her and that he wanted to have her. In the middle of the night, in the absence of her husband, Sextus entered Lucretia's chamber and gave her two choices. One was to lie with him and the other was to be killed alongside one of the young man slaves so that Sextus could claim that he saw them having sexual relationship and that he killed them both. Lucretia fearing a bad name agreed to lie with him. But she wanted to make sure that the atrocity of the king's son must be told to the public. When her husband got home she disclosed the rape by king's son and she committed suicide. Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, the husband of Lucretia gave a moving speech on her funeral which turned the whole city against the king, Tarquinius Superbus. Later, he was chased out of Rome and after that Rome opted for Republic and to never to have a king again. The rape of Lucretia was instrumental in bringing down the Roman monarchy.
The second rape story is about a virgin called Virginia. In the formation of the twelve tablets, the laws of ancient Rome, ten scholars were chosen to address the raising requests from plebians to make the laws public and not just the sole property of the patrician (the higher class). These decemviri, the ten men responsible for the completion of the twelve tablets only completed ten tablets in 451 bc. The next year more conservative fundamentalist law makers became the decemviri and made the laws more stringent that it created the divide between the patricians and plebians wider. One of the main clause of this cause was the prohibition of marraige between patricians and plebians. This divide caused more troubles for the plebians (the lower class).
One of these newer decemviri, Appius Cladius demanded sex from a young virgin called Virginia. She was unmarried but betrothed. When she declined Appius made one of his men (hangers-on) to claim that Virginia was indeed his slave and that Virginia's father Virginius had stolen her from that man. The preciding judge of that matter was Appius himself. Consequently, Appius found Virginia and Virginius guilty and ordered that she must be returned back to her so called master. Virginius seeing the scheme of Appius to take Virginia for sex took a butcher's knife from a nearby market and stabbed Virginia and killed her saying "I am making you free, my child, in the only way I can." An attempted rape of a virgin was prevented by a murder by her own father. This created major civil unrest in Rome. Virginius' speech on Virgina's funeral provoked the Roman plebians to fight against the "aristrocrstic" Patricians. Civil unrest followed suit. Plebians including Roman soldiers fought alongside to make a significant impact on the society. Eventually, patricians conceded. Plebians were given equal rights in all areas. Later on, even plebians were allowed to be elected for consulship (367 BCE, even both consulship in 342 BCE). Therefore, the (attempted) rape of Virgina and her eventual murder changed the social order of Rome significantly.
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