cks--one (in the Vicolo della Rupe Tarpea) on the
western edge of the hill facing the Tiber, and the other (near the Casa
Tarpea) on the south-east towards the Palatine. But if Dionysius, who
describes the "Traitor's Leap" as being in sight of the Forum, is to be
credited, the "actual precipice" from which traitors (and other
criminals, e.g. "bearers of false witness") were thrown must have been
somewhere on the southern and now less precipitous escarpment of the
mount.]

[oj] {413} _The State Leucadia_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[491] [M. Manlius, who saved the Capitol from the Gauls in B.C. 390, was
afterwards (B.C. 384) arraigned on a charge of high treason by the
patricians, condemned, and by order of the tribunes thrown down the
Tarpeian Rock. Livy (vi. 20) credits him with a "foeda cupiditas
regni"--a "depraved ambition for assuming the kingly power."]

[ok]
_There first did Tully's burning accents glow?_
_Yes--eloquently still--the echoes tell me so_.--[D.]

[492] [Compare Gray's _Odes_, "The Progress of Poesy," iii. 3, line
4--"Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."]

[493] {414} [Nicolas Gabrino di' Rienzo, or Rienzi, commonly called Cola
di' Rienzi, was born in 1313. The son of a Roman innkeeper, he owed his
name and fame to his own talents and natural gifts. His mission, or,
perhaps, ambition, was to free Rome from the tyranny and oppression of
the great nobles, and to establish once more "the good estate," that is,
a republic. This for a brief period Rienzi accomplished. On May 20,
1347, he was proclaimed tribune and liberator of the Holy Roman Republic
"by the authority of the most merciful Lord Jesus Christ." Of great
parts, and inspired by lofty aims, he was a poor creature at heart--a
"bastard" Napoleon--and success seems to have turned his head. After
eight months of royal splendour, purchased by more than royal exactions,
the tide of popular feeling turned against him, and he was forced to
take refuge in the Castle of St. Angelo (December 15, 1347). Years of
wandering and captivity followed his first tribunate; but at length, in
1354, he was permitted to return to Rome, and, once again, after a rapid
and successful reduction of the neighbouring states, he became the chief
power in the state. But an act of violence, accompanied by treachery,
and, above all, the necessity of imposing heavier taxes than the city
could bear, roused popular discontent; and during a revolt (October 8,
1354),