Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 1.58.10-12

Lucretia tells the men to see to what punishment is owed, declaring that though she absolves herself of guilt she does not free herself from penalty, and that no unchaste woman will ever live using her as an example, before plunging a knife she had hidden beneath her garment into her heart and falling dying upon the wound as her husband and father cry out.

 

Tier 1

"Vos," inquit Lucretia, "videbitis quid debeatur Tarquinio: etsi ego me absolvo crimine, non libero me poena; postea nulla impudica femina vivet exemplo Lucretiae."

Lucretia se occidit cultro, quem sub veste occultatum habebat, lapsaque moribunda in vulnus cecidit. Vir paterque clamant.

Written by Robert Amstutz