hiding place, driven to the Gemonian stairs and struck down. His last words were "Yet I was once your Emperor". On those same stairs, Decebalus's head was thrown along with his right hand in AD 106. Similar places During Republican times, the Tarpeian Rock, a steep cliff at the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, was used for similar purposes. Murderers and traitors, if convicted by the quaestores parricidii, were flung from the cliff to their deaths. Infants who suffered from significant mental or physical disabilities sometimes suffered the same fate, as they were thought to have been cursed by the gods. References External links Emblematic Scenes in Suetonius' "Vitellius" – interpretive essay, makes several mentions of the stairs LacusCurtius entry on the Scalae Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Rome Execution sites Roman Forum Rome R. X Campitelli Stairways