Ornamental fitting of the Tomb of the Lictor (coming from Vetulonia - Grosseto)

This tomb takes its name from the lictor bundle (a bundle of rods with a two-edged hatchet in iron), found in the funeral trousseau. This immediately brings to mind the passage in which the Latin poet Silius Italicus stated that the city of Vetulonia would have passed on to Rome this symbol of supreme power.

From the tales of Isidoro Falchi, who discovered this tomb at the end of the nineteenth century, we learn that it was a circular tomb, defined by stones driven into the ground, and it presented a grave inside covered with stones and earth. On top of the filling of the grave lay the remains of a cart: the iron rims of the wheels are preserved, as are fragments of the bronze leaf which would have covered the parapet of the cart, decorated with figures of animals, braids, lotus flowers and palms in an oriental style.

In the grave, as well as weapons made of iron and an incense-jar in bronze of Vetulonian production, were placed sumptuous items of jewellery, maybe in a special container. We recall the large brooches decorated with designs of animals both real and mythical, made using the techniques of embossing and granulation, the brooch with a bow shaped like a sphinx and the hatpin with a spherical head, decorated using gold-dust with animal and vegetable motifs.

The objects from this trousseau are currently kept in the storerooms of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (National Archaeological Museum) of Florence. 

Demaratus of Corinth

Demaratus was a nobleman of the House of Bacchus at Corinth. 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. Tacitus reported that Demaratus brought literacy to the Etruscans.

Through his sons, Demaratus was the ancestor of the Roman gens Tarquinia. Arruns Tarquinius died shortly before his father, leaving his wife pregnant. As Demaratus knew nothing of his future grandson, he left him no inheritance. For this reason the child, likewise named Arruns, was born into poverty, and called Egerius, meaning "the needy one."

As the son of a foreigner, Lucius Tarquinius was unable to attain high station at Tarquinii, despite his wealth and the nobility of both his mother and his wife, Tanaquil. With Tanaquil's encouragement, he migrated to Rome, where he won the favour of the king, Ancus Marcius. When Marcius died, Tarquin succeeded him to the throne.

Lucius Tarquinius was the father or grandfather of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome. He was also the father-in-law of Servius Tullius, the sixth King of Rome, who reigned between the two Tarquins.