Editing Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (section)

==Modern representations==
[[William Shakespeare]] describes the events leading to Tarquin's downfall in his long poem ''[[The Rape of Lucrece]]''. He also alludes to Tarquin in his plays, ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'', ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'', ''[[Coriolanus (play)|Coriolanus]]'', ''[[Macbeth]]'',<ref>"With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design" https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tragedy_of_Macbeth/Act_II</ref> and ''[[Cymbeline]]''.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://shakespeare.mit.edu/cymbeline/cymbeline.2.2.html |title = SCENE II. Imogen's bedchamber in Cymbeline's palace}}</ref>

In 1765, [[Patrick Henry]] gave a speech before the Virginia [[House of Burgesses]] in opposition to the [[Stamp Act 1765|Stamp Act of 1765]]. Toward the end of his speech, he inserted as a rhetorical flourish a comparison between [[George III of the United Kingdom|King George III]] and various historical figures who were brought low by their enemies, including [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]], and, in some accounts, Tarquin.<ref>James D. Hart and Phillip W. Leininger, "Henry, Patrick," in ''The Oxford Companion to American Literature'', p. 286.</ref>

The cultural phenomenon known as "[[tall poppy syndrome]]," in which persons of unusual merit are attacked or resented because of their achievements, derives its name from the episode in [[Livy]] in which Tarquin is said to have instructed his son Sextus to weaken the city of Gabii by destroying its leading men. The motif of using an unwitting messenger to deliver such a message through the metaphor of cutting the heads off the tallest poppies may have been borrowed from [[Herodotus]], whose ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' contain a similar story involving ears of wheat instead of poppies. A passage concerning Livy's version of the story appears in [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegaard]]'s ''[[Fear and Trembling]]''.{{sfn|Lippitt|2003|pp=137–38}}

[[Benjamin Britten]] employed the character in his 1946 [[chamber opera]] ''[[The Rape of Lucretia]]''.<ref>Andrew Clements, "[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/jun/01/artsfeatures1 The Origins of Britten's Controversial Opera, ''The Rape of Lucretia'']", in ''The Guardian'', 1 June 2001.</ref>

Tarquin also appears in the fourth book of ''[[The Trials of Apollo]]'' series by [[Rick Riordan]]. He is depicted as a zombie king who attacks the demigods for trying to rewrite the Sibylline Books.

Tarquin Superbus is a character in [[Claire-Louise Bennett|Claire-Louis Bennet]]'s novel ''[[Checkout 19|Checkout-19]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bennett |first=Claire-Louise |title=Checkout 19 |date=2022 |publisher=Riverhead Books |isbn=978-0-593-42049-2 |location=New York}}</ref>