Tarpeia's role as a Vestal has become a matter of scholarly consensus in the past two decades. This article questions that consensus by suggesting that Varro and Propertius are the two major proponents of this ‘Vestal version’, which is not present in other major narratives such as Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch. Propertius’ version in particular, which depicts Tarpeia as a Vestal in love, has been overprivileged in analyses of this myth as a dramatisation of individual identity versus loyalty to the state. Varro's account, which also includes Tarpeia's Vestal status, suggests a different interpretation: it is likely that Varro considered Tarpeia a non-Roman Vestal whose Vestal status supported the state. This version resolves certain dissonances in early Roman myth.

中文翻译：

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Tarpeia the Vestal

Tarpeia 作为 Vestal 的角色在过去的二十年里已经成为学术界的共识。本文通过暗示瓦罗和普罗佩蒂乌斯是这个“维斯塔版本”的两个主要支持者来质疑这种共识，这在李维、哈利卡纳索斯的狄奥尼修斯和普鲁塔克等其他主要叙事中并不存在。尤其是 Propertius 的版本，将 Tarpeia 描述为恋爱中的 Vestal，在将这个神话分析为个人身份与对国家忠诚的戏剧化分析时，它一直处于特权地位。Varro 的叙述，其中也包括 Tarpeia 的 Vestal 地位，提出了不同的解释：很可能 Varro 认为 Tarpeia 是一个非罗马 Vestal，其 Vestal 地位支持该州。这个版本解决了早期罗马神话中的某些不和谐。