Demaratus was the father of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus the fifth king of Rome and grandfather of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus the seventh and last king. He was a Corinthian nobleman who arrived in Italy from Greece as a refugee. Demaratus settled in the Etruscan city of Tarquinii and married an Etruscan woman. According to Tacitus, he taught the Etruscans literacy and was known as ‘Demaratus the Corinthian’.

When Demaratus migrated to Western mainland Italy, he took all of his wealth and introduced Greek culture and Greek pottery. He supposedly brought potters with him from Corinth. These potters were responsible for the development of Greek pottery in Western mainland Italy. There were Greek potters in Tarquinii and in the Greek trading post of Gravisca.

According to the Greek traveller Pausanias, it was either his son or grandson who was the first foreigner to visit Olympia and make a dedication.

Sources

• Morkot, R., The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece, Penguin, 1996.
  
• Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, tr. M. Grant, Penguin, 1996.
  
• Pausanias, Guide to Greece, tr. P. Levi, Penguin, 1979.