The Two Rapes That Segmented the Roman Monarchy

    I've just read in Mary Beards SPQR that the founding of the Roman monarchy and the end of it were both marked by the raping of women.  To begin the early monarch, in roughly 750 BC, it was the Rape of the Sabines that marked its beginning, while the end came about after Tarquin's rape of Lucretia, in 509 BC.  Whether this is fact or legend isn't relevant so much as the symbolism is.  It symbolizes the male dominance over female passivity in pagan Rome.  Later Romans were notoriously against tyranny, so the fact that both the beginning and end of the monarchy were viewed as catastrophic examples of tryrannical power must have reinforced their beliefs in a pagan mythology that still valued feminine virtues over male ones.  This marked a period before Christianity, when male-dominated politics became largely the norm, and the rule of tyrants more common.  The rapes served as a warning against tyranny; after Rome they seem to have been forgotten.