MIRABLE

Tired of being a subject, Tullia encourages her husband Tarquin to seize power from her father, King Servius, and make her Queen of Rome. Having gathered the support of a faction of peers, Tarquin takes the throne at the Senate. When Servius challenges this, a fight breaks out in which he is killed. Tullia treads his dead body underfoot, then drives over it in her chariot. She encourages Tarquin to rule by fear: he cancels Servius’ funeral, seizes his political opponents’ property, exiles people without trial, and sets about extending Rome’s power in Italy, both by alliances and force of arms. Servius’ former allies submit to the new regime, but cope with it in different ways: Brutus feigns idiocy, Scaevola laughs, Lucretius cries, Horatius adopts a habit of bitter speech, and Valerius sings incessantly. Tarquin has an ominous dream and sends his sons to the oracle to have it interpreted; they take Brutus along to entertain them. The oracle says that Rome must be purged of Tullia’s sins, and that, of the three Romans present, the first to kiss his mother will achieve power in Rome. Brutus kisses the earth, but the two brothers race home to kiss Tullia. Aruns gets there first, and Sextus swears enmity against him and flees to the Sabines, who make him their general. He leads them against Tarquin and wins twice, but is later reconciled with his father and brother. The Tarquins welcome Porsenna to Rome as an ally in the project of establishing military rule over the neighbouring Italian states. Sextus is put in charge of the Roman army, and lays siege to Ardea. Carousing in their tent, the Roman commanders compare the chastity of one another’s wives. Sextus derides them, so they agree on a bet: they will go home and catch their wives unawares; whoever’s wife is found to be most properly employed will be the winner. Collatine’s wife, Lucrece, is the only one who fulfils the conditions. Since the bet was also about the wives’ beauty, they refer the decision to Sextus, and he chooses Lucrece. But though Collatine has won the wager, it has been at the price of inflaming Sextus’ lust. On the way back to the siege, Sextus excuses himself and returns to Rome. Collatine gives him a ring to deliver to Lucrece; Sextus uses it to gain admittance to the house, and, after the household retires for the night, he creeps into Lucrece’s bedroom and rapes her. The dissident Roman lords return to Collatine’s house to find the raped Lucrece. She makes them swear vengeance, then…