T. Moore, Irish Melodies (“The Harp that Once ...” 1814).
Tara (The Fes of), the triennial convention established by Ollam Fodlah or Ollav Fola in B.C. 900, or 950. When business was over the princes banqueted together, each under his shield suspended by the chief herald on the wall, according to precedency. In the reign of Cormac, the palace of Tara was 900 feet square, and contained 150 apartments, and 150 dormitories, each for sixty sleepers. As many as 1000 guests were daily entertained in the hall.
Tarpa (Spurius Metius), a famous critic of the Augustan age. He sat in the temple of Apollo, with four colleagues, to judge the merit of theatrical pieces before they were produced in public.
He gives himself out for another Tarpa; decides boldly, and supports his opinions with loudness and obstinacy.--Lesage, Gil Blas, xi. 10 (1735).
Tarpe´ian Rock. So called from Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, governor of the citadel on the Saturnian (i.e., Capitoline) Hill of Rome. The story is that the Sabines bargained with the Roman maid to open the gates to them, for the “ornaments on their arms.” As they passed through the gates they threw on her their shields, saying, “These are the ornaments we bear on our arms.” She was crushed to death, and buried on the Tarpeian Hill. Ever after, traitors were put to death by being hurled headlong from the hill-top.
Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence
Into destruction cast him.
Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act iii. sc. 1 (1610).
⁂ G. Gilfillan, in his introduction to Longfellow’s poems, makes an erroneous allusion to the Roman traitress. He says Longfellow’s “ornaments, unlike those of the Sabine [sic] maid, have not crushed him.”
Louise Imogen Guiney has a poem entitled Tarpeia, beginning: