COLLOQUIUM: Jackie Neel, Temple, " The prize of treachery: L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi and the cult of Tarpeia"

In this paper, I attempt to reconstruct the circumstances and cult of Tarpeia. Best known as a traitor (see Livy 1.11), Tarpeia's myth was complex and could be seen in a positive light. According to Piso (FRHist 9 F7), Tarpeia received some form of annual remembrance from the Romans. This has usually been rejected as patriotic moralizing, but recent excavations on the Capitoline suggest new ways to interpret Piso's evidence.