Tarpeian rock
Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 29.4 " N , 12 ° 28 ′ 56.8" E
With Tarpeian Rock (lat. Saxum tarpeium or rupes Tarpeia ) was in ancient Rome , the southern tip of Capitol Hill called, from which death sentences by descent pushing the rock (rock fall) enforced were.
In the archaic period, before the temple of Jupiter was built, the capitol hill was called mons tarpeius . Later only the rock on the southeast slope of the Capitol was called Tarpeian Rock. In Rome today the "Via di Monte Tarpeo" leads down from the Capitol Hill towards the ruins of the Roman Forum .
Legend
According to Titus Livius ' report of the robbery of the Sabine women , the name of the rock can be traced back to the Vestal Virgin Tarpeia . This was the daughter of Spurius Tarpeius , the commandant of the Capitol in Rome. According to the legend handed down by Titus Livius, Tarpeia opened the gates of the Capitol Castle to the Sabines , on the condition that they had to give her what they were wearing on their left arm. After they had occupied the castle, the Sabines had maliciously interpreted Tarpeia's condition and, instead of giving her their gold jewelry, suffocated her with their shields - which they also wore on their left arm - and fell from the rock.
According to a different version of the legend, Tarpeia was not a traitor. With her condition she wanted to take the shields of the Sabines in order to make the fight of the Roman soldiers easier.
According to Properz (IV, 4), however, Tarpeia committed her betrayal out of love for Titus Tatius , king of the Sabines. Collective murder and falling rocks do not appear in this deviating legend.
According to another tradition, Spurius Tarpeius was the first victim of the rock fall. He wanted to hand over the Capitol to the Sabines and was sentenced to death by Romulus' daughter .
history
In historical times the Tarpei rock was used to execute death sentences for perjury , incest ( Tacitus , Ann. 4,36,1), betrayal and overflow, but also for flight or betrayal of the master by slaves. The earliest case that informs posterity can be found in Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Dion. Hal. 10,31, 3-4). After that, a lictor was supposed to be thrown from the rock because he had expelled his messenger ( viator ). The convicts were thrown down the steep slope. The fall from the Tarpeian Rock was the harshest measure of violence within the framework of the tribucinic powers of violence. The last attested execution of this kind took place under Emperor Claudius in AD 43 ( Cassius Dio 60,18,4), at an uncertain later date such executions were expressly forbidden ( Digest 48,19,25,1).
Dionysius of Halicarnassus reports on a ceremony in honor of Tarpeia, which is said to have taken place in the Capitol every year .
See also
- Sextus Marius , executed in 33 AD on the Tarpei Rock
literature
- Donatella De Rita and Marina Fabbri: The Rupe Tarpea: the role of the geology in one of the most important monuments of Rome. Mem. Descr. Carta Geol. D'It LXXXVII (2009), pp. 53-62.
- Gerhard Radtke: Tarpeium saxum . In: The Little Pauly . Volume 5, 1979, pp. 522-523.
Web links
Remarks
- ^ Wolfgang Kunkel with Roland Wittmann : State order and state practice of the Roman Republic. Second part. The magistrate . Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-33827-5 (by Wittmann completed edition of the work left unfinished by Kunkel). P. 574 f.