Gemonies

The Gemonian Stairs (Latin: Scalae Gemoniae, Italian: Scale Gemonie) were a flight of steps located in the ancient city from Rome. Nicknamed Mourning Stairs, they are infamous in Roman history as a place of execution.

Location

Via S. Pietro in Carcere near Campidoglio

This ladder was cited by numerous Latin authors starting with Tiberius, including Valerius Maximus (VI, 3, 3 and VI, 9, 13), Suetonius (Life of Tiberius, 53, 61, 75) and Tacitus (Annals, Book III, 14 and VI, 4, 31). It is not precisely located.

The stairs were located in the central part of ancient Rome, leading from the Arx on Palatine Hill down to the Roman Forum. As seen from the Forum, they passed the Tabulario and the Temple of Concord on the left hand side, and past the Mamertina jail on the right hand side. The location of the stairs is believed to coincide more or less with today's Via di San Pietro in Carcere, passing the ruins of the Mamertina prison.

History

The stairs are believed to have been built some time before the reign of Tiberius (14–37), as they are not mentioned by this name in any other ancient texts that predated this period. One of the earliest references comes from Tacitus, Annals Its first use as a place of execution is mainly associated with the paranoid excesses of the late reign of Tiberius. In Suetonius the Gemonies are an important part of the times of terror carried out by Sejanus.

The condemned were usually strangled before their bodies were bound and thrown down the stairs. Occasionally, the bodies of convicts were brought here for display from other places of execution in Rome. The corpses were usually left to rot on the stairs for long periods of time in full view from the Forum, eaten by dogs and other carrion animals, until finally dumped into the River Tiber.

Death in Gemonias was considered extremely dishonorable, though several senators or even an emperor met their end here. Among the most famous executed in this place are the prefect of the Praetorian guard Sejanus and the emperor Aulus Vitellius. Sejanus was a former confidant of the Emperor Tiberius who became involved in a conspiracy in AD 31. According to Cassius Dio, Sejanus was strangled and thrown into the Gemonians, where the mob raged over his corpse for three days. Shortly thereafter, his three sons were similarly executed at this location.

Vitellius was a Roman general who became the third emperor in the so-called Year of the Four Emperors in 69. He succeeded Otho after his suicide on April 16, but lived to be emperor for only eight months. When his armies were defeated by Vespasian's, he agreed to surrender, but the Praetorian Guard refused to let him leave the city. When Vespasian's troops were going to enter the city, on December 20, 69, he was dragged out of the place where he was hiding, they led him to the Roman Forum, crossing the entire Via Sacra, with his hands tied, a noose around his neck. and torn clothes. Throughout the entire journey they offended him with gestures and words, while they placed a sword on his chin and grabbed his head by the hair, as was done with criminals. They took him to the Gemonías stairs and threw him. His last words were "And yet I was once your emperor."

Throw these snares and excrements; they called him drunk e arson; part of the village mocked even his bodily defects, because it was, in fact, extremely high and had the face lit and stained by the abuse of wine, the lumped belly and one leg thinner than the other, as a result of a wound that was inferred in another time in a car race, serving as auriga to Caligula. Near the Gemonias they torn him, finally, with the swords and by a hook they dragged him to the Tiber.

Suetonio (1985). "A. Vitelio." The Twelve Caesars. History Library. Editions Orbis, S.A. ISBN 84-7530-991-7..

Similar places

During the Republican era, Tarpeian Rock, a steep cliff on the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, was used for a similar purpose. Murderers and traitors, if convicted of quaestores parricidii, were thrown from the ravine to die. Children with significant physical or mental disabilities sometimes suffered the same fate, believed to be cursed by the gods.