Porsena Sentence Examples

As a general rule the annalists wrote in a spirit of uncritical patriotism, which led them to minimize or gloss over such disasters as the conquest of Rome by Porsena and the compulsory payment of ransom to the Gauls, and to flatter the people by exaggerated accounts of Roman prowess, dressed up in fanciful language.

After the expulsion of the Tarquins the chief events in Etruscan history are the vain attempt to re-establish themselves in Rome under Lars Porsena of Clusium, the defeat of Octavius Mamilius, son-in-law of Tarquinius Superbus, at Lake Regillus, and the treaty with Carthage.

Porsena then laid siege to the city, but was so struck by the courage of Mucius Scaevola that he made peace on condition that the Romans restored the land they had taken from Veii and gave him twenty hostages.

According to other authorities, the Romans were obliged to surrender the city, to acknowledge Porsena's supremacy by sending him a sceptre, a royal robe, and an ivory chair, to abandon their territory north of the Tiber, to give up their arms, and in future to use iron for agricultural purposes only.

It is curious that, in spite of his military success, Porsena made no attempt to restore the Tarquinian dynasty.

It first appears in Roman history at the end of the 7th century B.C. when it joined the other Etruscan towns against Tarquinius Priscus, and at the end of the 6th century B.C. it placed itself, under its king Lars Porsena, at the head of the attempt to re-establish the Tarquins in Rome.

All Tarquinius's efforts to force his way back to the throne were vain (see Porsena), and he died in exile at Cumae.