According to legends of Romes foundation Tarpeia was a maiden who betrayed Romulus city to the invading Sabines. She was then crushed to death by the Sabines shields and her body hurled from the Tarpeian Rock which became the place from which subsequent traitors of the city were thrown. In this volume Tara S. Welch explores the uses and contours of Tarpeias myth through several centuries of Roman history and across several types of ancient sources including Latin and Greek texts in various genres. ampampnbsp Welch demonstrates how ancient thinkers used Tarpeias myth to highlight matters of ethics gender ethnicity political authority language conquest and tradition. This cluster of themes reveals that Tarpeias myth is not primarily about what it means to be human but rather what it means to be Roman. Thus Tarpeias story spans centuries distances genres and modes of communicationRome itself did. No Greek citystate could admit such continuity and Greece was never so constant. In this way though Tarpeia has a dozen Greek cousins whose stories are similar to hers hers is a powerfully Roman myth even for the Greeks who told her tale. She is token totem and symbol of Rome.