whom they discovered at work on her wool. When this fact about her became noised abroad, Sextus conceived a desire to outrage her. Perchance he even felt some love for her, since she was of surpassing beauty; still, it was rather her reputation than her body that he desired to ruin. He watched for an occasion when Collatinus was among the Rutuli, hurried to Collatia, and coming to her by night as to a kinswoman, obtained both food and lodging. At first he tried to persuade her to grant her favours to him, but meeting with no success, he attempted force. When he found he could make no progress by this means either, he devised a novel plan by which, strangely
Zonaras 7, 11.
despotic and violent ways. Lucretia was the daughter of Lucretius Spurius, a member of the senate, and she was wife of the distinguished Tarquinius Collatinus, and was renowned for her beauty and chastity. Sextus, the son of Tarquin, set his heart upon outraging her, not so much because he was inspired with passion by her beauty as because he chose to plot against her chaste reputation. So, having waited for Collatinus to be away from home, he came by night to her, as to the wife of a relative, and lodged at her house. And first he tried by persuasion to secure illicit pleasure from her and then he resorted to violence. When he could not succeed, he threatened to slay her. But inasmuch as she scorned
