Crawford 344/2b

Moneyer:   Lucius Titurius Sabinus, 89 BC

Denomination: Denarius

Obverse:  SABIN APV Bare-headed and bearded head of King Titus Tatius to right; in lower field to right, palm branch.

Reverse:  L•TITVRI Tarpeia facing, buried to her waist in shields, with raised hands she tries to thrust off two soldiers who are about to cast their shields at her; star in crescent above. 

Reference:  Crawford 344/2b

Mint: Rome

Weight: 

Notes: A subplot of the myth of the abduction of the Sabine women involved Tarpeia, a Vestal Virgin who betrayed Rome to the Sabines when they were attempting to rescue their captured wives and daughters. According to the historian Livy (1.11), the price for Tarpeia's betrayal was what the Sabine soldiers wore on their left arms. To Tarpeia, this meant the gold bracelets the men were wearing. The Sabines, however, offended by Tarpeia's reprehensible greed and treason, took her price literally and crushed her to death under the weight of their shields, which were also worn on their left arms. Tarpeia's corpse was then cast down from, or buried at the foot of, the cliff subsequently named for her – the Tarpeian Rock –  a promontory on Capitoline Hill,  from which notorious criminals were thrown to their deaths.

However, there are two variant legends concerning Tarpeia. One story, probably the earliest, holds that she agreed to betray Rome to the Sabines by opening the city gates, in return for which she would receive what the Sabine soldiers wore on their left arms. A later version of the story holds that Tarpeia was in fact trying to save Rome by disarming the Sabines and thus died a martyr's death. The legends are probably an attempt to explain the name of the Tarpeian Rock,  from which criminals were thrown to their deaths.

According to the Roman foundation myth, Titus Tatius, also called Tatius Sabinus, was king of the Sabines from Cures and joint-ruler of the Kingdom of Rome for several years. During the reign of Romulus, the first king of Rome, Tatius declared war on Rome in response to the incident known as The Rape of the Sabine Women.^[3] After he captured the stronghold atop the Capitoline Hill through the treachery of Tarpeia, the Sabines and Romans fought an epic battle that concluded when the abducted Sabine women intervened to convince the two sides to reconcile and end the war. The two kingdoms were joined and the two kings ruled jointly until Tatius' murder five years later.The joint kingdom was still called Rome and the citizens of the city were still called Romans, but as a community, they were to be called Quirites.The Sabines were integrated into the existing tribes and curies,^{[clarification needed]} yet Tatius is not counted as one of the traditional "Seven Kings of Rome".

Tatius had one daughter, Tatia, who married Numa Pompilius (Romulus' successor), and one son, who was the ancestor of the patrician Tatii family.

Collection : 16 Roman Republic