The out-work which overhangs the sheer northern scarp performed the same function as the famous Tarpeian Rock of old Rome.

The Gauls had already gained a firm footing, as there was no wall at the topthe rock which they stormed was not the Tarpeian, but the Arxwhen Manlius, who lived there, was roused by the screaming of the geese: he came to the spot and thrust down those who were climbing up.

Throw yourself, rather, my dear sir, from the steep Tarpeian rock slap-dash headlong upon iron spikes.

[Footnote 46: Hurling from the Tarpeian rock was a punishment that might be inflicted only upon freemen.

Thus Manlius, in spite of his magnificent services, was hurled from the Tarpeian Rock, because he was convicted of an intention to seize upon the government.

Ascending the steps which led from the Temple of Concord to the Temple of Juno Moneta upon the Arx, or Tarpeian Rock, on the southwestern summit of the hill, itself one of the most beautiful temples in Rome, erected by Camillus on the spot where the house of M. Manlius Capitolinus had stood, and one came upon the Roman mint.

The Tarpeian Rock, from which the condemned used to be thrown by the ancient Romans, is close by this edifice, if the Rupe Tarpeia still pointed out is the veritable one.

[Footnote 50: The name "Tarpeian," as given from the Tarpeia, whose story is told above, was generally confined to the rock or precipice from which traitors were thrown.

Throw yourself rather, my dear Sir, from the steep Tarpeian rock, slap-dash headlong upon iron spikes.

He gave the slave who betrayed Sulpicius his freedom, and then had him hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.

On descending from the Campanile, we visited the Tarpeian rock, which is now of inconsiderable height, the ground about it and heaps of rubbish having filled up the abyss below.

Agostino read Plutarch, and thought, "I, too, am a Roman!"and then he looked on the power that held sway over the Tarpeian Rock and the halls of the old "Sanctus Senatus," and asked himself, "By what right does it hold these?"

he leads him next to the Tarpeian Rock and to the Capitol, now of gold, once thick with wild bushes.

One night as he comes between Donatello and Miriam as they lean on the parapet crowning the Tarpeian Rock, the Italian throws him over the precipice and kills him.

Throw yourself, rather, my dear Sir, from the steep Tarpeian rock, slap-dash, headlong, upon iron spikes.

One, whose fate he wished particularly to signalize, was thrown down from the Tarpeian Rock.

[Sidenote: The Tarpeian Rock.]

The Tarpeian Rock was a precipice about fifty feet high, which is still to be seen in Rome, from which the worst of state criminals were sometimes thrown.

The Tarpeian Rock received its name from the ancient story of Tarpeia.

This was near the Tarpeian Rock, which afterward took her name.

The Tarpeian Rock was the place where Roman criminals who had been guilty of the crime of treason were executed.

CAPITOL, a temple and citadel erected by Tarquin on the Capitoline Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome, and where victors who were voted a triumph were crowned; terminated at its southern extremity by Tarpeian Rock, from which criminals guilty of treason were precipitated; hence the saying, "The Tarpeian Rock is near the Capitol," to denote the close connection between glory and disgrace.

CAPITOL, a temple and citadel erected by Tarquin on the Capitoline Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome, and where victors who were voted a triumph were crowned; terminated at its southern extremity by Tarpeian Rock, from which criminals guilty of treason were precipitated; hence the saying, "The Tarpeian Rock is near the Capitol," to denote the close connection between glory and disgrace.

MANLIUS, CAPITOLINUS, a Roman hero who, in 390 B.C., saved Rome from an attack of the Gauls, and who was afterwards for treason thrown down the Tarpeian Rock.