Demaratus the Corinthian

Demaratus, frequently called Demaratus of Corinth, was the father of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth King of Rome, the grandfather or great-grandfather of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last Roman king, and an ancestor of Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, the first consuls of the Roman Republic. Life Demaratus was a Dorian nobleman and a member of the Corinthian house of the Bacchiadae. Facing charges of sedition, in 655 BC he fled to Italy, according to tradition settling in the Etruscan city of Tarquinii, where he married an Etruscan noblewoman. They had two sons, Lucius and Arruns. According to tradition, Demaratus introduced Greek culture to mainland Italy, and brought potters from Corinth; Greek potters worked at Tarquinii and its port, Gravisca. Pliny the Elder and Tacitus reported that Demaratus brought literacy to the Etruscans. Strabo reported that he became the ruler of Tarquinii, but this is not stated by other sources, and seems improbable given that his son, Lucius, as the son of a foreigner, had to migrate to Rome to obtain political power. According to Pausanias, Demaratus' son or grandson was the first foreigner to visit Olympia, and make a dedication there. Descendants Through his sons, Demaratus was the ancestor of the Roman gens Tarquinia, and a forebear of several other notable Roman families. By blood or marriage, his descendants included the last three kings of Rome, as well as the first two Roman consuls.