_Opposite the gate leading into the garden_ we can look over the parapet, down the scarped rock, to the base beneath, which is reached from below by _taking the Via Tor dei Specchi on the right, looking towards the Capitol, and the Vicolo Rupe Tarpeia on the left_. It was here that the terrible scene described in Hawthorne's "Transformation" took place. The road leads to the New German Archæological Institute. It was about here that the messenger from Veii got into the citadel, and where the Gauls tried to do the same, when the sacred geese in Juno's temple awoke the garrison. The two bronze "geese" shown in the Hall of the Conservators are ducks. _Passing on under the archway, turn to the left; at a little distance the Via Monte Tarpeia turns off to the right--follow this; at the end, the house facing us is built up_ against the point of the hill used for the public executions. THE TARPEIAN ROCK. [Illustration: TARPEIAN ROCK.] After the name of the hill was changed for the last time, one part, we are told, retained the name of the Tarpeian Rock, from being the burial-place of Tarpeia, and the spot from which the traitors were hurled off in sight of the people assembled in the Forum. The house in front of us is built upon a ledge of the rock below, and has upon it the following inscription:-- "Hinc ad Tarpeiam sedem, et Capitolia ducit, Aurea nunc, olim, silvestribus horrida dumis." VIRGIL, _Æn._ viii. 347. GREGORIUS XIII. PONT. MAX. VIAM TARPEIAM APERINT HIER. ALTERIUS AEDILIS SECUNDO } CURABANT PAULUS BUBALUS AEDILIS SEXTO } ANNO DOMINI MDLXXXI. "The quæstors led the man [Spurius Cassius] to the top of the precipice that commands the Forum, and in the presence of all the citizens threw him down from the rock. For this was the established punishment at that time among the Romans for those who were condemned to die"--A.U.C. 269--(Dionysius, viii. 78). _If we look back up_ the street we came down, the height will be seen in the garden above us. It must be remembered that the top of the hill has been levelled, and the valley below filled in thirty feet; allowing for this there would have been a fall of upwards of 160 feet. The steps on our left formed the third ancient approach to the arx, the _Centum Gradus_, up which the Vitellians climbed when they took the citadel. On the site of the garden above stood CAMILLUS'S TEMPLES TO CONCORD AND JUNO. The first Temple of Concord of which we have any notice was that dedicated by Camillus, A.U.C. 388.