Editing Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (section)

==Death and succession==
Tarquin is said to have reigned for thirty-eight years.  According to legend, the sons of his predecessor, Ancus Marcius, believed that the throne should have been theirs.  They arranged the king's [[assassination]], disguised as a riot, during which Tarquin received a fatal blow to the head by an ax. However, the queen, Tanaquil, gave out that the king was merely wounded, and took advantage of the confusion to establish [[Servius Tullius]] as regent; when the death of Tarquin was confirmed, Tullius became king, in place of Tarquin's sons, or those of Ancus Marcius.

Tullius, said to have been the son of Servius Tullius, a prince of Corniculum who had fallen in battle against Tarquin, was brought to the palace as a child with his mother, Ocreisia. According to legend, Tanaquil discovered his potential for greatness by means of various omens, and therefore preferred him to her own sons.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Levy|title=Ab urbe condita|page=1:39}}</ref> Tullius married [[Tarquinia (wife of Servius Tullius)|Tarquinia]], one of the daughters of Priscus, thus providing a vital link between the families. His own daughters were subsequently married to Tarquin's sons (or, in some traditions, grandsons), Lucius and [[Arruns Tarquinius (brother of Tarquin the Proud)|Arruns]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Neel|first=Jaclyn|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/895116581|title=Legendary rivals : collegiality and ambition in the tales of early Rome|year= 2014|isbn=978-90-04-28185-1|location=Leiden|oclc=895116581}}</ref>

Most ancient writers regarded Tarquin as the father of [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus]], the seventh and last King of Rome, but some stated that the younger Tarquin was his grandson.  As the younger Tarquin died about 496 BC, more than eighty years after Tarquinius Priscus, the chronology seems to support the latter tradition.  An Etruscan legend related by the emperor [[Claudius]] equates Servius Tullius with ''Macstarna'' (apparently the Etruscan equivalent of the Latin ''magister''), a companion of the Etruscan heroes Aulus and [[Caelius Vibenna]], who helped free the brothers from captivity, slaying their captors, including a Roman named Gnaeus Tarquinius.  This episode is depicted in a fresco at the tomb of the Etruscan Saties family at [[Volci|Vulci]], now known as the [[François Tomb]].  This tradition suggests that perhaps the sons of the elder Tarquin attempted to seize power, but were defeated by the regent, Servius Tullius, and his companions; Tullius would then have attempted to end the dynastic struggle by marrying his daughters to the grandsons of Tarquinius Priscus.  However, this plan ultimately failed, as Tullius was himself assassinated at the instigation of his son-in-law, who succeeded him.