Everything about the Tarpeian Rock totally explained
The
Tarpeian Rock (
rupes Tarpeia) was a steep cliff of the southern summit of the
Capitoline Hill, overlooking the
Roman Forum in
Ancient Rome. It was used during the
Roman Republic as an execution site.
Murderers and
traitors, if convicted by the
quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. Those who had a mental or significant physical
disability also suffered the same fate as they were thought to have been cursed by the gods.
History
According to early Roman histories, when
Titus Tatius attacked Rome after the
Rape of the Sabines, the
Vestal Virgin Tarpeia, daughter of
Spurius Tarpeius, governor of the citadel on the Capitoline Hill, betrayed the Romans by opening the city gates for the Sabines in return for 'what they bore on their arms.' She believed that she'd receive their golden bracelets. Instead, the Sabines crushed her to death with their shields, and she was thrown from the rock which now bears her name.
About 500 BC,
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh legendary king of Rome, leveled the top of the rock, removing the shrines built by the
Sabines, and built the
Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on the
intermontium, the area between the two summits of the hill. The rock itself survived this remodelling, being used for executions well into
Sulla's time.
To be hurled off the Tarpeian rock was, in some sense, a fate worse than death, because it carried with it a stigma of shame. The standard method of execution in ancient Rome was by strangulation in the
Tullianum. Rather, the rock was reserved for the most notorious traitors, and as a place of unofficial, extra-legal executions (for example, the near-execution of then-Senator
Gaius Marcus Coriolanus by a mob whipped into frenzy by a
tribune of the plebs).
Notable victims
Victims of this punishment included:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tarpeian Rock'.
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