In the alternative version she did not go to Rome but sent for her father at Rome and her husband at the camp at Ardea, asking them to bring one friend each her father selected Publius Valerius Publicola and her husband Lucius Junius Brutus. "This dreadful scene struck the Romans who were present with so much horror and compassion that they all cried out with one voice that they would rather die a thousand deaths in defence of their liberty than suffer such outrages to be committed by the tyrants." She died in her father's arms, with the women present keening and lamenting. While they were debating she drew a concealed dagger and stabbed herself in the heart. Asked to explain herself she insisted on first summoning witnesses and after disclosing the rape called on him and them for vengeance, a plea that could not be ignored, as she was speaking to the chief magistrate of Rome. The next day Lucretia dressed in black, and went to her father's house in Rome and cast herself down in the suppliant's position (embracing the knees), weeping. While the king of Rome was away at the siege of Ardea, his son, Sextus Tarquinius, raped Lucretia, the wife of the king's nephew. Main article: Overthrow of the Roman monarchy
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