Sextus Tarquinius

• "Witchcraft celebrates / pale Hecate's offerings, and withered murder / Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf / Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace / With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design / Moves like a ghost" (2:1)
• Sextus Tarquinius, the youngest son of the King of Rome, raped his cousin's wife, Lucretia, after a dispute about her virtue. This drove her to suicide, and with that, Tarquinius had committed a double crime.
• According to some, this was a pivotal event in the overthrow of the monarchy and the subsequent establishment of the Roman Republic, as this brought an end to the kingship of Tarquin the Proud.
• This reference not only shows how sinful Macbeth is, but that he knows exactly what he is about to do; he is about to commit a serious crime, and more importantly, would be aware of the consequences of killing a king.
• Sextus fled to Gabii, hoping to become King there, but he was killed for his previous crimes, a fate which also befalls Macbeth.