[Illustration: DEATH OF VIRGINIA.]
_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).