All the prominent friends of Sylla, men of the highest rank and station, were then killed, wherever they could be found, without sentence, without trial, without any other accusation, even, than the military decision of Marius that they were his enemies, and must die.

For those against whom he felt any special animosity, he contrived some special mode of execution.

One, whose fate he wished particularly to signalize, was thrown down from the Tarpeian Rock.
[Sidenote: The Tarpeian Rock.] The Tarpeian Rock was a precipice about fifty feet high, which is still to be seen in Rome, from which the worst of state criminals were sometimes thrown.

They were taken up to the top by a stair, and were then hurled from the summit, to die miserably, writhing in agony after their fall, upon the rocks below.
[Sidenote: The story of Tarpeia.] [Sidenote: Subterranean passages.] The Tarpeian Rock received its name from the ancient story of Tarpeia.
The tale is, that Tarpeia was a Roman girl, who lived at a time in the earliest periods of the Roman history, when the city was besieged by an army from are of the neighboring nations.

Besides their shields, the story is that the soldiers had golden bracelets upon their arms.