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The Tarpeian Rock (rupes Tarpeia) was a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill
Capitoline Hill

The Capitoline Hill , between the Roman Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome of Rome. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Campidoglio in the Romanesco....
, overlooking the Roman Forum
Roman Forum

The Roman Forum , sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome. It is the central area around which the Ancient Rome developed....
 in Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
. It was used during the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 as an execution site. Murderers
Murder

Murder as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide....
 and traitors
Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of loyalty to one's sovereignty or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife ....
, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. Those who had a mental or significant physical disability
Disability

Disability is a lack of ability relative to a personal or group standard or norm. In reality there is often simply a spectrum of ability. Disability may involve physical impairment such as sense impairment, cognitive impairment or intellectual impairment, mental disorder , or various types of chronic disease....
 also suffered the same fate as they were thought to have been cursed by the gods.

rding to early Roman histories, when Titus Tatius
Titus Tatius

The traditions of ancient Rome held that Titus Tatius was the Sabine king of Cures, who, after the The Rape of the Sabine Women, attacked Rome and captured the Capitol with the treachery of Tarpeia....
 attacked Rome after the Rape of the Sabines, the Vestal Virgin
Vestal Virgin

In Ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins , were the virgin holy female priests of Vesta , the goddess of the hearth. Their primary task was to maintain the sacred fire of Vesta....
 Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius
Spurius Tarpeius

Spurius Tarpeius is a mythological character. He was the commander of the Roman Kingdom citadel under King Romulus. His daughter betrayed the city to the fathers of the kidnapped sabine women and asked for everything the sabine warriors had on their left arms ....
, 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 would receive their golden bracelets.






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The Tarpeian Rock (rupes Tarpeia) was a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill
Capitoline Hill

The Capitoline Hill , between the Roman Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome of Rome. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Campidoglio in the Romanesco....
, overlooking the Roman Forum
Roman Forum

The Roman Forum , sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome. It is the central area around which the Ancient Rome developed....
 in Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
. It was used during the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 as an execution site. Murderers
Murder

Murder as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide....
 and traitors
Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of loyalty to one's sovereignty or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife ....
, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. Those who had a mental or significant physical disability
Disability

Disability is a lack of ability relative to a personal or group standard or norm. In reality there is often simply a spectrum of ability. Disability may involve physical impairment such as sense impairment, cognitive impairment or intellectual impairment, mental disorder , or various types of chronic disease....
 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
Titus Tatius

The traditions of ancient Rome held that Titus Tatius was the Sabine king of Cures, who, after the The Rape of the Sabine Women, attacked Rome and captured the Capitol with the treachery of Tarpeia....
 attacked Rome after the Rape of the Sabines, the Vestal Virgin
Vestal Virgin

In Ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins , were the virgin holy female priests of Vesta , the goddess of the hearth. Their primary task was to maintain the sacred fire of Vesta....
 Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius
Spurius Tarpeius

Spurius Tarpeius is a mythological character. He was the commander of the Roman Kingdom citadel under King Romulus. His daughter betrayed the city to the fathers of the kidnapped sabine women and asked for everything the sabine warriors had on their left arms ....
, 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 would 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
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the last of the seven legendary kings of Rome, son of Tarquinius Priscus and son-in-law of Servius Tullius, the sixth king....
, the seventh legendary king of Rome, leveled the top of the rock, removing the shrines built by the Sabine
Sabine

The Sabines were an Ancient Italic peoples tribe that lived in ancient Italy, inhabiting Latium before the founding of Rome. Their language belonged to the Osco-Umbrian languages subgroup of Italic languages and shows some similarities to Oscan language and Umbrian language....
s, 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
Coriolanus

Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a possibly legendary ancient Rome general who lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymy title "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli....
 by a mob whipped into frenzy by a tribune of the plebs).

Notable victims

Victims of this punishment included:
  • Spurius Cassius Vecellinus
    Spurius Cassius Vecellinus

    Spurius Cassius Vecellinus was an early consul of the Roman Republic. Recorded in the fasti as consul in 502, 493, and 486 BC, his last consulship, with Proculus Verginius Tricostus Rutilus, is believed to have actually occurred in 480 BC, the year in which the Battle of Salamis took place in Ancient Greece, and thus provides a chronological...
    , 485 BC
  • Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, 384 BC, for sedition
    Sedition

    Sedition is a term of law which refers to covert conduct, such as Speech communication and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order....
  • rebels from Tarentum
    Taranto

    Taranto is a coastal city in Puglia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
    , 212 BC
  • Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus
    Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus

    Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus was a Ancient Greece freedman of Lucius Cornelius Sulla whom Sulla put in charge of the proscriptions of 82 BC. He was accused of corruption by Marcus Tullius Cicero during the trial of Sextus Roscius....
    , 80 BC
  • Sextus Marius, 33
    33

    Year 33 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar....
     AD
  • Simon Bar Giora
    Simon Bar Giora

    Simon Bar Giora was a leader of the Sicarii faction during the First Jewish-Roman War in the 1st century Judea....
    , 70
    70

    Year 70 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar....
     AD


See also

  • Gemonian stairs
    Gemonian stairs

    The Gemonian Stairs were a flight of steps located in the ancient city of Rome. Nicknamed the Stairs of Mourning, the stairs are infamous in Roman history as a place of Execution ....