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DEATH OF VIRGINIA.

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Opposite this shrine, facing up the Vicus Tuscus, is some brickwork—remains of a line of shops that faced towards the Temple of Cæsar, and which were destroyed by Signor Rossa in making the excavations. The end shop only was saved. This was the site of the butcher's stall from which Virginius snatched the knife that saved his daughter's honour.

"Virginius demanded to speak with Virginia; and permission being granted, he drew the maiden and her nurse aside to the shops near the shrine of Cloacina, now called the new shops, and there, snatching a knife from a butcher's stall, plunged it into his daughter's breast" (Livy, iii. 48).