Aruns Egerius Tarquinius was a member of the royal family of early Rome.

His father was Aruns, son of Demaratus the Corinthian

Demaratus the Corinthian

Demaratus the Corinthian was the father of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth King of Rome and the grandfather of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king.-Life:...

 and a noblewoman Princess from Tarquinii.

While his mother was pregnant with him, Aruns died and since Demaratus was unaware of the pregnancy, he left his entire estate to Aruns' brother, Lucumo. Left with nothing, the child was aptly called Egerius, "the Needy One".

His uncle Lucumo would became King of Rome as Lucius Tarquinius Priscus.

After the surrender of Collatia

Collatia

Collatia was an ancient town of central Italy, c. 15 km northeast of Rome by the Via Collatina.It appears in the legendary history of Rome as captured by Tarquinius Priscus. Virgil speaks of it as a Latin colony of Alba Longa...

 at the conclusion of Tarquinius Priscus' war against the Sabines, Egerius was left in charge of the town's garrison. His son's cognomen

Cognomen

The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...

 comes from the town.

Egerius fathered Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus

Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus

Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus was one of the four leaders of the revolution which overthrew the Roman monarchy, and became one of the first two consuls of Rome in 509 BC, together with Lucius Junius Brutus...

, who was the husband of Lucretia

Lucretia

Lucretia is a legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. According to the story, told mainly by the Roman historian Livy and the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , her rape by the king's son and consequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the...

.

Sources

• Livy 1.34.2
• Livy 1.34.1ff., 1.57.6
• *William Smith (ed) (1870), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol 2 p. 4, #1.