Word.ws English Dictionary

Tarpeia

Tarpeia proper noun: a vestal virgin and daughter of Spurius Tarpeius who betrayed Rome to the Sabines by opening the gates of the citadel in exchange for what they wore on their arms; instead, she was crushed to death by their shields.

Proper noun

Tarpeia

  1. (Roman) A vestal virgin and daughter of Spurius Tarpeius who betrayed Rome to the Sabines by opening the gates of the citadel in exchange for what they wore on their arms; instead, she was crushed to death by their shields.

Origin of Tarpeia

Borrowed from Latin Tarpeia, from the feminine of Tarpeius.

Questions about Tarpeia

What does Tarpeia mean?
Tarpeia means a vestal virgin and daughter of Spurius Tarpeius who betrayed Rome to the Sabines by opening the gates of the citadel in exchange for what they wore on their arms; instead, she was crushed to death by their shields.
What part of speech is Tarpeia?
Tarpeia is a proper noun.

Words near Tarpeia in the dictionary

  1. tarpauling
  2. tarpaulings
  3. tarpaulining
  4. tarpaulins
  5. tarped
  6. Tarpeia
  7. Tarpeian
  8. Tarpeian Mount
  9. Tarpeian Rock
  10. Tarpetes
  11. Tarpey

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Tarpeia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Tarpeia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tarpeia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.