Tarquinius in the context of "Lucius Tarquinius Priscus"

The socii (English: /ˈsoʊʃiaɪ/ SOH-shee-eye) or foederati (English: /ˌfɛdəˈreɪtaɪ/ FED-ə-RAY-ty) were confederates of Rome and formed one of the three legal denominations in Roman Italy (Italia) along with the core Roman citizens (Cives Romani) and the extended Latini. The Latini, who were simultaneously special confederates (Socii Latini) and semi-citizens (Cives Latini), derived their name from the Italic people of which Rome was part (the Latins) but did not coincide with the region of Latium in central Italy as they were located in colonies throughout the peninsula. This tripartite organisation lasted from the Roman expansion in Italy (509-264 BC) to the Social War (91–87 BC), when all peninsular inhabitants south of the Po river were awarded Roman citizenship.

Treaties known as foedus served as the basic template for Rome's settlement with the large array of tribes and city-states of the whole Italian peninsula. The confederacy had its origin in the foedus Cassianum ("Treaty of Cassius", 493 BC) signed by the fledgling Roman Republic with its neighbouring Latin city-states shortly after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy in 510 BC. This provided for mutual defence by the two parties on the basis of an equal contribution to the annual military levy, which was probably under Roman overall command. The terms of the treaty were probably more acceptable to the Latins than the previous type of Roman hegemony, that of the Tarquin kings, as the latter had probably required the payment of tribute and not a simple military obligation.

Titus Geganius Macerinus (fl. c. 492 BC) was a Roman politician who served as consul in 492 BC with Publius Minucius Augurinus.

The consuls were required to deal with a famine which had taken hold of Rome and they focused their efforts on obtaining grain shipments from around Italy. The famine arose because the plebeian farmers had not sown their fields during the secession of the plebs which ended the previous year. Envoys were sent by ship to buy grain from the coastal towns of Etruria, the Volsci and others to the south as far as Cumae. Because many of Rome's neighbours bore the Romans animosity from past military conflicts, envoys were even sent as far as Magna Graecia (Sicily). Grain was purchased in Cumae, however the tyrant Aristodemus (who had been made the heir of the exiled Roman kings) seized the Roman ships on account of the property of the Tarquinii which had been seized by the Roman Republic when the king's family had been exiled. Roman attempts to buy grain were also thwarted in the territory of the Volsci, including the Pomptine Marshes. Because of recent wars with Rome, the grain merchants were threatened with violence if grain was sold to the Romans. However, grain was successfully obtained from Etruria and transported to Rome down the Tiber river. An even greater amount of grain was imported the following year from Sicily, and the question of how it should be distributed amongst the Roman citizens led to the exile and defection of Gaius Marcius Coriolanus.