Tarpeia

The vestal virgin Tarpeia (Greek Ταρπεία ) was in Roman mythology the daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, the commander of the Capitol in Rome. She granted the Sabines, when the latter attacked under Titus Tatius Rome, access to the Capitol.

In return, they should get what the Sabines wore on his left arm - she thought of the rich gold jewelry. The Sabines " rewarded " them by making them, buried under their shields, which she also wore on his left arm. In memory of her Urverrat called the rock of the Capitol, on the one later the traitor fell to his death, the " Tarpeian rock ."

There is a second version of Tarpeiasage. This states that Tarpeia when drawing water - get water for ritual acts was the task of Vesta Linen - Titus Tatius, met the king of the Sabines. She fell instantly into the man and promised him out of sheer love to open the doors of the Capitol. Thus, the Sabines won the meantime the victory in the battle against the Romans. Since Tarpeia but had committed high treason, condemned the Sabines, though she had helped them to death.

Tarpeia was also depicted on a coin of the Emperor Augustus. There she stands in the middle of a pile of shields. Your story has been handed down among other things, the Roman historian Livy.

Swell

• Cassius Dio Fr. 4.12
• Dionysius of Halicarnassus Antiquitates Romanae 2, 38-40
• Livy Ab urbe condita 1, 11, 5-9
• Ovid Fasti 1, 261-262; Metamorphoses 14, 776
• Plutarch Antiquitates Romanae 17-18
• Valerius Maximus Facta et dicta memorabilia 9, 6, 1