Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, also called Tarquin I, fifth legendary king of Rome, is represented as the son of a Greek refugee who removed from Tarquinii in Etruria to Rome, by the advice of his wife, the prophetess Tanaquil.
Appointed guardian to the sons of Ancus Marcius, he succeeded in supplanting them on the throne on their father's death. It was he who established the Circus Maximus, built the great sewers (cloacae), and founded the triple temple on the Capitol - the expense of these vast works being defrayed by plunder seized from the Latins and Sabines. Many of the Roman symbols both of war and of civil office are assigned to his reign, and he was the first to celebrate a Roman Triumph, after the Etruscan fashion, in a robe of purple and gold, and borne on a chariot drawn by four horses. After a reign of thirty-eight years he was assassinated by the contrivance of the sons of Ancus Marcius, but Tanaquil had influence enough to secure the succession to Servius Tullius, his son-in-law.