The Rape of Lucretia in Text & Image

by Suzanne Henrich & Matthew Webb
Classics 608
University of Massachusetts

Tarquin and Lucretia, 1567-1570, Titian

Go to:
Activity I | Activity II | Activity III

Activity I:
Read the English introduction,
then translate the story of Lucretia (from Livy) below.
The underlined words are hyperlinked to notes that will help you.
The color-coding shows which word groups should be translated together.
Type your translation in the box to the right.

For many years at the beginning of its history, Rome was ruled by kings. The last king of Rome was Tarquin the Proud. At the time of our story, King Tarquin was waging war on a neighboring people and stationed his troops at the town of Ardea . One night at Ardea the king's sons and some prominent Roman men began arguing about which one of their wives was the most virtuous. They decided to return to Rome to decide the question by seeing what their wives were doing in their absence.

On their return they found the princes' wives feasting and enjoying themselves. When they came to the house of one of the prominent Romans, Collatinus, they found his wife Lucretia spinning wool and weaving with her slaves by candlelight. It was clear that Lucretia was the most virtuous wife.

As a result of seeing her beauty and her virtue, one of the princes, Sextus Tarquinius, became inflamed with lust for Lucretia. He returned to her house when her husband was at Ardea. Lucretia graciously welcomed him, treated his as an honored guest, and showed him to an empty bedroom. Later that night, however, Sextus Tarquinius appeared in Lucretia's bedroom.