(1) Religion in the Roman Empire (James B.

Rives, Malden, MA: Blackwell

Publishing, 2007)
• “Romans and Etruscans alike apparently regarded any untoward event as a
possible message from the gods, and the Senate regularly authorized the
consultation of either a Roman priestly college or the Etruscan haruspices in order
to determine its significance.” (p. 83)
• “Another distinctive feature of the Roman tradition was a strong emphasis on
divination. The traditional Roman form of divination was augury, the
interpretation of the calls and flights of birds; magistrates were required to employ
augury before any public business in order to determine whether or not the gods
approved.” (p. 83)
• “This concern for omens continued throughout the imperial period, when many
other forms of divination seem to have faded away.” (p. 83)
• Graeco-Roman practice of representing gods in human form (p. 85)
• “A key element in the Graeco-Roman tradition was the integration of public cults
into the social and political structures of the city, so that they were to some extent
simply one facet of civic organization.” (p. 85)
• “Roman authorities were often more concerned with the organization of public
cult and religious authority because these things were intimately bound up with
the fundamental power structures of society.” (p. 85)
• “The Roman tradition likewise bestowed a central role on the goddess of the
hearth, called Vesta in Latin, who similarly received offerings at mealtimes. In
place of the domestic forms of Zeus, however, we find two groups of deities, the
Lares and the Penates, whose precise nature is uncertain. The name “Penates”
(found only in the plural) is probably connected with the Latin word penus,
“arder”; they were thus apparently the protectors of the household property. The
name “Lares” (also found in the singular “Lar”) is more obscure, and their
function seems to have been less specific, since Lares also appear as guardians of
crossroads. It was to the household Lares that young men dedicated the symbols
of their boyhood on their assumption of adult status, and young women dedicated
their toys and girlhood clothes when they married.” (p. 118-119)
• “Aristotle identified the household as the basic building block of the city-state:
both were part of the “natural” structuring of human society. Not surprisingly,
there were significant interconnections between the household and the city.” (p.
119)
o Many of the traditional household orders also existed on a civic level.
o The Vestal Virgins ensured that the fire inside their small shrine in the
Forum never went out, in addition to maintaining the public Penates. (p.
121)
• “Although religion frequently served to reinforce traditional social hierarchies, it
also provided opportunities for marginalized group to advance their social status
in ways that would otherwise be denied to them. Women, for example, who were
generally barred from political office, could nevertheless hold public priesthoods.
This was especially common in the Greek tradition, in which female deities were
typically served by female priests; even in the Roman tradition, in which there
were fewer female priests, the Vestals enjoyed extremely high public status. In

1
 the imperial period some elite women used their priesthoods to establish
themselves as public benefactors on the same level as men, and consequently
received the same forms of public recognition.” (p. 128)
(2) Rome’s Vestal Virgins (Robin Lorsch Wildfang, London: Routledge, 2006)
• “The central purpose of both the most ancient form of Roman marriage rite that
cum manu and the Vestal rite of captio involved a girl’s removal from the familial
cult under which she had lived from birth…The Vestal rite of captio removed a
girl from the cult of her birth family but manifestly did not complete the transfer
of a girl to the cult of any new family. Instead the new Vestal remained in a
liminal state, outside the realm of any one Roman family. In both rites, though,
there existed a period of time, brief in the case of bride and of at least thirty
years’ duration in the case of a Vestal, when the girl in question was no longer a
member of her birth family’s cult nor yet a ember of a new family cult. In both
cases, the girl or woman in question wore her hair in the sex crines style so long
as the period of liminality lasted. The bride put aside her hairstyle as soon as the
rites that ensured her transfer to her new family were complete. The Vestal,
however, retained hers s long as she was a member of the priesthood, visibly
demonstrating her peculiar liminal status and perhaps gaining protection from its
existence.” (p. 13)
• Wore a stola, one of two groups (only the matronae and the Vestals) who were
allowed to wear one. “Both prostitutes and freedwomen were explicitly forbidden
to wear either of these garments. In other words, the stola was restricted to the
use of certain citizen class women.” (p. 13) The stola likely was a visible sign of
purity since in addition to freedwomen and prostitutes, divorced women were also
prohibited from donning it. (p. 13)
• “Alongside their role as purificatory agents, the Vestals had a second and
simultaneous function, the guardianship of Rome’s symbolic storeroom and the
ritual manufacture of certain religious substances, which, while often used in
purificatory rites, seem also in some way to have been symbolic of Rome’s food
stores.” (p. 16) --really good examples of types of food preparation that the
Vestals did can be found on page 16.
• “What should be emphasized instead is the Vestals’ role as guardians of Rome’s
symbolic storehouse. These priestesses were, as Plutarch observes, the only
Romans allowed within the penus, and they alone knew the exact nature of the
objects preserved within this storeroom. What was important was not so much
the precise contents of the penus as the fact that the Vestals alone had
responsibility for these contents and that these contents, whatever they were, were
integral to the continued existence of Rome.” (p. 17) = more proof/symbolism of
the Vestals’ necessity for the continuation of Rome itself.
• “Alongside their religious duties within the precincts of the aedes Vestae, the
Vestal Virgins also participated more publicly in at least nine annual state rites.”
(p. 22) –same responsibility of purification and storage expressed within these
rituals…and of these nine, six were purificatory!
o During the traditional New Year’s rite (March 1st, but actually New Year’s
according to the original Roman calendar), the priestesses replaced the old
decorative laurel branches on the aedes Vestae and kindled a new fire on

2
 the focus. Ovid’s Fasti describes this with, “So that Vesta may also shine
shaded with new leaf, / The white laurel departs from the Trojan hearth. /
Add, that new ire is said to be lit within the secret shrine / And the
renewed flame gains strength.” (p. 22)
o Cleansing rituals during the Vestalia, on June 9. Again, Ovid describes
the importance of this purificatory ritual in his Fasti. “For the Dialis’ holy
wife said to me: / ‘Until the placid Tiber’s yellow waters carry / Trojan
Vesta’s sweepings to the sea, / I am not allowed to comb my hair with
clipped / boxwood or trim my nails with iron, / or touch my husband,
although he is Jupiter’s priest / and given to me by perpetual law. / You,
too, should not hurry. Your aughter will wed better, / when blazing Vesta
shines with a clean floor.’” (Ov. Fast. 6.226-234) (p. 23)
o For the Fordicidia and the Parilia, most primary evidence in Ovid and
elsewhere emphasize the purificatory purposes. In fact, the “overwhelmin
concern with purification and the minimal references to fertility suggest
strongly that these rites were meant primarily as purificatory measures and
were concerned with fertility only in as much as many ancient agricultural
rites were to some extent fertility-related by their very nature.” (p. 26)
o One of the final annual rituals, the Argei, is described by Dionysius of
Halicarnassus as having the Vestal Virgins and Pontifices (the most
important priests) throw male effigies into the Tiber River. “…a little
after the spring equinox, in the month of May, on what they call the Ides
(the day they consider to be the middle of the month); on this day after
offering the preliminary sacrifices according to the laws, the Pontifices, as
the most important of the priests are called, and with them the virgins who
guard the immortal fire, the Praetors, and whatever other citizens as may
lawfully be present at the rites, throw from the sacred bridge into the river
Tiber thirty effigies made in the likeness of men, which they call Argei.”
(D.H. 1.38.3) (p. 27) Ovid also describes this when he writes, “Today
also the Virgin hurls the straw dummies / of earlier men from the oaken
bridge.” (Ovid, Fasti. 5.621-622) (p. 27) approximately 24-30 human
figures were thrown into the water!  Some scholars have argued that
since the Argei occurred directly after the Lemuria, the action of throwing
the effigies into the river was meant to symbolize the disposal of the
ghosts and spirits thought to be present during the Lemuria. (p. 28)
o From 7th to 15th of June, the aedes of Vesta were opened to Roman
women, and then on June 9th, Vesta’s own festival, the Vestalia, occurred.
It is likely that grain was manufactured into flour and bread during this
festival. Ovid writes, “There survives to this time a piece of ancient
custom: / A pure platter brings Vesta offered food. / Look, bread hangs
from garlanded donkeys, / and chains of flowers veil rough millstones. /
Farmers used to roast only spelt in opens / (these are the rites of the
Goddess, Fornax). / The hearth itself baked the bread covered in its ash; /
after a chipped tile had been placed on the warm floor. / Hence the baker
serves the hearth and the mistress of the hearths / And the donkey who
turns the pumice millstones.” (Ovid, Fasti 6.309-318) (p. 28-29)

3
  HOWEVER, even when the Vestals made mola salsa three times a
year, the relation fo the fertility of the crops seems doubtful,
especially since Ovid compared Vesta to a sterile flame who “is a
virgin, giving and taking / no seed, and [who] loves companions in
virginity.’” (Ovid, Fasti 6.291-294) (p. 29) Jupiter had
commanded Vesta to dry and bake the bread. (Not exactly
fecund/moisturizing/growth/fertility processes)
 Bona Dea: a women’s mystery rite (surprising that we know so
much about it from our male sources!)
“On the eve of the feast all the men, both members of the
family and of the staff, leave the house of the magistrate
where that year the rites are to be performed. The mistress
of the house together with the female servants (?),
decorates the festive hall with plants and flowers, and
bowers are arranged, covered with vine—though this must
have been somewhat problematic in December. The cult
statue, borrowed for the occasion from the temple (?), is set
up in the festive hall and in front of the statue the pulvinar
and a small table with the sacred vessels from which the
goddess is thought to eat and drink. Next a young sow
(Juvenal) or a pregnant sow (if Macrobius’ remark also
relates to this feast) s sacrificed and a libation is poured by
the mistress of the house. Then the participants, the noble
women of Rome and the Vestal Virgins, make merry,
drinking wine and being enlivened by music performed by
female harpers and flutists.” (Brouwer, H. H. J., 1989,
Bona Dea: The Sources and a Description of the Cult.
Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill.) (p. 31)
Cicero even argues, “What is done by the Vestal Virgins
is done for the Roma people.” (Cicero, De Haruspicum
Responso 17.37) (p. 31)
• “As well as publicly participating in these nine rites, ancient sources note that the
Vestals also made public appearances sitting in special seats at the gladiatorial
games…Public theatrical performances and gladiatorial games in Rome were as
much religious rites meant to honour various divinities, as they were sources of
public entertainment. At the beginning of each performance, offerings were made
to the deity or deities in whose honour the games were being held. The priests
who performed these rites also had special seats at the games, from which they
could oversee the spectacle performed in honour of their god.” (p. 33)
 The Vestals had special seating arrangements at many of these
public events, thereby visually reinforcing the public awareness of
their special status.
• “The combination of the fact that the largest group of the Vestals’ ritual duties
falls under the rubric ‘purification’ and the fact that four of the nine annual rites,
in which they participated, were mainly purificatory in nature suggest that one
major aspect of the Vestals’ religious position was purificatory. This supposition

4
 is further strengthened when we take into account the fact that even in some of the
rites directed towards other purposes, most notably the fertility rites of 1 March
and the Fordicidia, the Vestals’ participation is primarily limited to purificatory
actions.” (p. 33)
• “When a girl became a Vestal Virgin, she underwent a religious ritual whose
procedure can hardly have reassured a nervous, young Vestal candidate. Seated
on her father’s lap, she awaited the approach of the Pontifex Maximus, who
seized her by the hand and took her away ‘as if,’ Aulus Gellius remarks, ‘she had
been captured in war.’” (p. 37) This is the rite of captio!!
• DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A VESTAL CEREMONY AND A MARRIAGE
CEREMONY: “There are some marked differences between the two rites. The
Vestal candidate was taken not from her mother’s lap, as a bride was, but from
her father’s, and the war imagery described is not directly parallel. In the
marriage rite cum manu, a bride’s hair was parted with a spear; in the rite of
captio, the Vestal candidate was treated as a captive of war. Neither do the
remaining rituals of captio parallel the remaining rituals of a Roman marriage
ceremony. The Vestal candidate was not accompanied to her ‘symbolic’
husband’s house by a torch-lit procession, nor were any other rites reminiscent of
the Roman wedding ceremony performed in connection with her induction into
the Vestal order.” (p. 38) THEREFORE, captio was at the same time like and
unlike the cum manu.
o “Both rites then had as one of their purposes the transfer of a girl out of
her father’s potestas. In the marriage rite, the establishment of the bride
within her new family’s potestas completed this transfer. In the rite of
captio, this transfer was never completed, the Vestal instead becoming sui
iuris. (p. 39) Incomplete Vestal transfer—freed from her father’s control
but no new male control!
o Birth cult (potestas)  Husband’s cult
Birth cult (potestas)  State cult
• “As a state cult, the cult of Vesta did not belong to a single Roman family but to
all of them together, collectively.”
• The careful and uniform wording of the captio terms ensured “that every priestess
inducted into the Vestal order was inducted on precisely the same terms as the
first Vestal chosen.” The term amata (‘amare’ = “to love”; others think it’s a
Latinization of the Greek word meaning “unmastered” or “virgin”) was used to
refer to every new Vestal, and it was also the name of the first Vestal.
HOWEVER, it’s more likely that it’s simply a derivation of the term, optima
lege, which was part of a phrase, ‘on the same terms as her who was a Vestal on
the best terms (optima lege)’ so that every subsequent Vestal would have the
same rights as the first one, no matter how later laws attempted to change it. (p.
40)
• PONTIFEX MAXIMUS’S CENTRAL ROLE IN VESTAL CANDIDATE
SELECTION: Vesta herself made the ultimate decision…only priest position
decided to do this (sometimes). The Vestal selection process could take place one
of two ways. Either the Pontifex Maximus, following King Numa’s ancient
Papian law, could select twenty girls from whom one would be chosen by lot, or a

5
 man of ‘respectable birth’ could offer his daughter of his own accord and if the
senate approved the offer, and if all the religious aspects were in accordance, she
might be automatically accepted. (p. 46) Sidenote: Plutarch argues that the king
himself originally chose the Vestals. Thus, although the selection process for
other positions within the Pontifical College (e.g. the Flamines and the Rex
Sacrorum) follows a similar process whereby a list of acceptable candidates is
first made and then a final candidate is chosen, the Vestal Virgin final selection is
done by lot rather than by the Pontifex Maximus, since it is viewed as being left
up to the gods (particularly Vesta herself). (p. 47) Other historians think that the
difference was that for Vestals, the Pontifex Maximus alone selected from the list,
whereas other priestly positions were chosen from the list by the Pontifices as a
whole. Still other historians think that an alternative method included a man of
respectable birth offering his daughter for priesthood, and then the Pontifex
Maximus deciding whether to accept that girl or not without going through the
full process of selecting twenty candidates. (p. 47) IN ALL CASES, THE
GODDESS HERSELF WAS ALLOWED THE FINAL SAY IN THE CHOICE
OF HER NEW PRIESTESS!!!
o “The Pontifex Maximus was consulted in all matters connected with the
transfer of an individual from one family’s potestas to another’s
(adoptions, marriages cum manu, etc.). This consultation took place
because of the dangers of religious pollution that an improper transfer
from one family’s domestic cult to another carried with it. The Pontifex
Maximus’s central role in the selection of a Vestal candidate can be traced
to a similar concern, and thus, it highlights once again just how important
familial cult purity was in the case of a Vestal candidate.” (p. 47)
*Vestal virginity was not a lifetime commitment. HOWEVER, the loss of virginity
during service, aka the crime of incestum (crimen incesti), was a life-altering act.
“Virginity was at the very centre of the Vestal’ religiouscult. Whatever else these
priestesses were and whatever else they did, they were virgins, and their cult had as one
of its central aspects the preservation of this virginity.” (p. 51)

*Period of service (minimum thirty years) was not necessarily a lifelong one, although
most priestesses chose to make it so. (p. 51)

* “A loss of virginity during a Vestal’s period of service … led to charges of incestum, a

crime viewed as a particularly die threat to the Roman state, and punished by burial
alive.” (p. 51)

*Vestal virginity had several explanations. Their virginity functioned on a variety of

levels—it was (a) “rooted in a univirate Roman matron’s chastity [and] meant to separate
the Vestals from the profane world of ordinary women and give them a special sacred
status,” (p. 51-52) (b) it “prevented the order from becoming too closely connected to a
single Roman family” (p. 52), (c) it “represented a stored-up power, the suppression of
which gave the Vestals a special status,” (p. 52) and (d) it enabled the Vestals to easily
accomplish custody of the fire as well as showing the Roman citizenry that feminine
nature was capable of complete purity (castitas = moral purity). (p. 52) “incestum” 

6
“in-castum”  an antonym of “castum” which was basically the opposite of castitas, or
mural purity.

*There were just two classes of women citizens in Rome—the matronae and the virgines
—and if you didn’t fit in either, you weren’t a Roman citizen. Vestals’ virginity ensured
that they remained in the Virgine class. (p. 53)
 “Women who did not fulfill the qualifications of either the matronae or
the virgines were viewed as non-members of the Roman state for religious purposes and
banned from participating in almost all state rites.” (p. 55)

*A virgo had to be a daughter of a Roman citizen, and thus, captio required that a
suitable Vestal candidate must have parents who had never been slaves or ‘held lowly
occupations.’ (p. 54) The possibility of a Vestal reproducing was left open, however,
only nominally so since she was bound as a virgin during her most fertile 30 years.

*CRIMEN INCESTI DESCRIPTION: “According to ancient sources, when a Vestal

Virgin was accused of incestum, she was ordered by the Pontifical College to refrain
from the sacred rites and from selling her slaves. She was then tried, originally by a court
made up of the Pontifices, later by a quaestorial tribnal. If she was found guilty, she was
dressed in funeral garments, and then carried, bound hand and foot in a closed litter,
accompanied by her family and friends as if at a funeral, to thecampus sceleratus near the
Colline Gate. Here she was taken by the Pontifex Maximus and sent down a ladder into
an underground chamber furnished with a bed, blankets, a lighted lamp, water, brea, milk
and oil. As soon as she was placed upon the ladder, the Pontifex Maximus and the other
priests accompanying him turned away. After the priestess had descended the ladder, it
was removed and the hole through which she had entered the room filled in until no trace
of its existence remained. Her lover was bound to a furca and beaten to death.’ (p. 55)

• “It has often been remarked that the original judicial method used to try the
Vestals for the crimen incesti was anomalous in both Roman religion and law. Of
all Roman officials, only a Vestal was suspended from her duties on the slightest
suspicion of wrongdoing, and only she faced a judicial inquiry by the full Pntifical
College. Of all Romen women accused of sexual misdeeds, only a vestal faced
such a court or such public proceedings. Of all Romans, only a Vestal seemingly
faced a trial with so little possibility of defending herself.” (p. 56)
• Every incestum accusation was preceded by a mysterious omen (e.g.
extinguishing of the fire in the aedes Vestae) (p. 56)
• Only Vestals were tried in front of the entire Pontifical college because only they
transcended the status of civis. (p. 56)
• Pontifices presided over transfer of “manus” weddings and official adoptions too.
(Hence, their involvement in liminal Vestals)
• Other crimes could be atoned, but the crimen incesti was seen as ordinary and
voluntary, hence the live burial! (p. 57)
• Vestals’ exact live burial was not because the state was afraid of killing a priestess
b/c hermaphrodites and murderers were killed similarly. (p. 58)

7
 • Buried alive so they’d make the right offering to Vesta, goddess of the earth,
underworld, and hearth. (p. 59)
• Discussion of the rationale behind the items buried with the Vestal (and debunk
myths starting on the former page of the book) (p. 60)
• Proof of execution/Vestal death ritual (p. 61)

STOPPED ON PAGE 61 of this BOOK

(3) The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome (By Catherine Edwards,

Cambridge University Press, 1993)
• “Female unchastity was also a recurrent element in discussions of the ‘decline’ of
Roman religion which was said to have been a feature of the later republic. This
chapter began with the story of Clodius’ infiltration of the rites of the Bona Dea.
Female sexual ‘purity’ in Roman religion (as in many other religions) was
constructed as important to the preservation of divine favour. Female impurity
disrupted religious activity; the unchastity of Vestal Virgins, for instance, was
often associated with times of crisis. Though the chastity of Vestals is of a rather
different order from that of the ordinary Roman matrona, rules governing their
behaviour do suggest the threat female unchastity was felt to pose to he religious
well-being of the state.” (p. 44)
• Furthermore, just as during the Bacchanalian scandal of the early second century
BCE, during which the consul Postumius Albinus addressed the senate saying,
“To start with, a great many of them are women and they are the source of this
trouble; then there are the men who are just like women, debauched and
debauchers.” / “primum igitur mulierum magna pars est, et is fons mali huiusce
fuit; deinde simillimi feminis mares, stupati et constupratores.” (LIVY 39.15.9)
(p. 44) Thus, in ancient Rome, “women are seen as primarily to blame. They are
presented as particularly susceptible to religious frenzy. The behaviour of the
men involved is characterized as wrong by assimilating them to women. The
disruption of Roman religion is inextricably associated with feminine sexual
immorality.” (p. 44-45)
• “Just as Scipio waged war on Rome’s enemies, hostile peoples who (in theory at
least) threatened the security of the res publica, so Cato fought the enemy within,
moribus [sc. Nostris] (‘our orals’), according to Seneca’s picture. While Romans
fought foreigners on the margins of their empire to determine its physical
boundaries, they also attacked their fellow citizens at the empire’s centre, in
disputes over the bounds of Rmanitas (‘Romanness’) itself.” (p. 2)
• Justas Livy prefaces his history by telling of the luxus and libido (luxury and lust),
so too did all Romans believe that luxury and lust were cognate vices; “those
susceptible to sexual temptation, it was felt, were also prone to indulge to excess
their appetites for food, drink and material possessions.” (p. 5)
• The disorder of the final years of the Roman Republic were reflected by Publius
Clodius, a young and politically ambitious Roman aristocrat, who disguised
himself as a woman in 62 BCE and infiltrated the rites of the all-female Bona Dea
ritual. Profaning a religious rite and intending to seduce the wife of Julius Caesar
represented two of the major issues with the failing republic—religious

8
 licentiousness and adultery. Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, the new Romulus,
claimed he would fix all these problems and return Rome to chastity and res
publica. (p. 34)
(4) LIVY, The History of Rome, Books 1-5. (Translated by Valerie M. Warrior,
Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2006)
• Numa realized “that in a warlike nation there would be more kings like Romulus
than like himself, and that they would go off to war. So, he appointed the flamen
Dialis as a permanent priest, distinguishing him with special dress and a regal
curule chair. To him he added two flamens, one for Mars and the other for
Quirinus. He chose virgins for the service of Vesta, a priesthood that originated
in Alba and was thus associated with the race of Rome’s founder. For them, so
that they might be perpetual attendants of her temple, he decreed a stipend from
the public treasury, marking their revered and inviolable status by their chastity
and other signal honors.” (p. 31)
o THUS, when emperors would not be able to ensure the security and
survival of the Roman interior state when times of war required them to
attend to external/warring matters, the Vestal Virgins were part of the vital
homefront protection!
(5) Mika Kajava, “Vesta and Athens” in Greek East in the Roman Context
• Perhaps Rome’s Vestal devotion was translated and transferred to the Acropolis
in Greece.
• “Vestal Virgins could not marry (at least during their service) nor could they
travel abroad, for they were not allowed to omit their duties in Rome, leaving, for
example, the eternal fire in the Forum unprotected. Thus Vestals in office could
never come to Athens in person. This probably means tat when a Vestal was
honoured in Athens [as Vibidia did in AD 48], it was her father who was in the
Greek East because of either administrative duties or military service or for some
other reason.” (p. 73)
• “Vestal Virgins were not similarly honoured anywhere else in the Roman
provinces. On the whole, there is very little evidence for their presence outside
the city of Rome. One cannot but conclude from this singular evidence that there
must have been some particular reason for the Vestals to be honoured on the
Acropolis.” (p. 73) “A number of inscriptions on the hill [Acropolis] show that
Roman Vestals were honoured with statues by the Athenian people.” (p. 72)
• “Three seating inscriptions from the Theatre of Dionysus show that there were
priesthoods of Hestia in Athens: one of the seats belonged to the priestess of
‘Hestia on the Acropolis, Livia and Julia’ (Augustus’s daughter). This institution
is likely to date before 2BC, the year of Julia’s banishment.” (p. 73) And since
there’s no proof that the worship of Hestia was ever institutionalized in the Greek
world as a priesthood or cult, in addition to the fact that the Vesta was associated
with the Roman Livia, and that the inscription distinguishes the Vesta cult on the
Acropolis from the other Athenian hesiai, means that the goddess in question was
likely the Roman version of Hestia, aka, the Vesta of the Roman Forum. (p. 76)
• There’s a round, Ionic-styled building on the Acropolis (just like the only round
building in the Ionic order found in all of Rome—the aedes Vestae), and it is

9
 likely that female priestesses from the Temple of Athena tended to any
hypothetical Vesta rites in the Acropolis. (p. 78)
• “ The triple cult of ‘Hestia on the Acropolis, Livia and Julia’ may plausibly be
associated with the Temple of Roma and Augustus, for on the Acropolis there is
no earlier trace of a worship of Hestia; moreover, this temple is the only known
nucleus of an imperial cult on the hill.” (p. 79)
• (stopped b/c what’s the point if this were really the case?!)
(6) “The Sexual Status of Vestal Virgins,” by M. Beard, in The Journal of
Roman Studies vol. 70, 1980, pages 12-27.
• “The evidence we have for the Vestals … is not sufficient to draw any but the most
banal comparisons between one period and the next.” (p. 12)
• The holiness of the Vestal priestesses was directly associated with their virginity and
purity and reflected a connection to ancient Greek ideas that sexual activity was
polluting and therefore disqualified a person from close contact with a deity. (p. 12)
Greek law even went so far as to forbid common worshippers from entering a temple
up to 2-3 days following intercourse. (p. 13)
• Since the Vestal Virgins were believed to be in constant contact with a deity, they had
to refrain from sexual intercourse all the time. (p. 13)
• The Vestals are associated with the wives of the early kings since both (1) guarded
the hearth like the matron of the household (2) prepared the sustaining mola salsa,
sacrificial cake, and cleaned the aedes Vestae (3) a lot of the sacrificial elements, like
the burning of a cow fetus during the Roman Hausfrau mean more for the city at
large (and less personally) if it is a wife/mother rather than a daughter doing it (4) the
Vestal dress was not that of a virgine but of a matrona, or more exactly, a bride on
her wedding day/bride-wife element (p. 13) (5) “after the symbolic wedding, it is
argued that the right of punishment exercised by the high priest over the virgins was
directly comparable to the disciplinary powers of a Roman man over his wife, and
that action taken when a Vestal broke the rule of chastity was parallel to the action
taken by a husband in the case of an adulterous wife and her paramour.” (p. 14)
• “It is argued that the type of virginity represented by the Vestals is not virginity in the
sense of total abstinence from sexual intercourse, but rather the chastity (pudicitia) of
a univirate Roman matron, a quality defined by her fidelity to a single husband and by
soberness of conduct and dress. Furthermore, the problem posed by the number of
Vestals—for it seems hard at first to equate six priestesses with a single wife—is
reconciled by considering the whole, as a unity, to be representative of the one
individual materfamilias.” (p. 14)
• In early Rome, “it seems as if the virgin was not looked upon as sterile but as a
mediator of stored up, potential procreative power, a fact that can be adduced against
the view that the connection of the Vestals with ancient fertility cults reaffirms their
matronal status.” (p. 15)
• In the dress, a bride wore a red veil, whereas a Vestal wore a white one. (p. 15)
• Another difference is that in captio, the Vestal is taken by the Pontifex Maximus from
her father, whereas a bride is taken from her mother or closest female relative. (p. 15)
• Vestals were both Virgines and Matronae: “So far from possessing a single,
exclusive sexual identity, they combined aspects of two separate categories that were

10
 for Romans even more distinct than they are for us: the married and unmarried
woman.” (p. 15)
• Mythology of the importance of Vestal sexuality: The early priestesses were
sometimes saved from charges of unchastity by performing miracles with Vesta’s
help, and when serious state crises occurred later, there was immediate suspicion of
Vestal chastity. (p. 16)
• Two items of the Vestal clothing—the stola (long dress) and the vittae (bands around
the head)—were also elements in the traditional costume of a Roman matron. (p. 16)
• Vestal hairstyle was like that worn by Roman women only on their wedding day.
• HOWEVER, the Vestals also had a male identity since they were given the right to
enjoy the services of a lector, a symbol of masculine status. Testabilis—they could
also give evidence in court. And they had the power to make a will and bequeath
their possessions. (p. 17)
• [[stopped on top of page 18 online!!!]]

(7) Suetonius, Twelve Caesars (London: The Folio Society, 1957)

• “Not satisfied with seducing free-born boys and married women, Nero raped the
Vestal Virgin Rubria. He nearly contrived to marry the freedwoman Acte, by
persuading some friends of consular rank to swear falsely that she came of royal
stock. Having tried to turn the boy Sporus into a girl by castration, he went
through a wedding ceremony with him—dowry, bridal veil and all—which the
whole Court attended; then brought him home, and treated him as a wife. He
dressed Sporus in the fine clothes normally worn by an Empress and took him in
his own litter not only to every Greek assize and fair, but actually through the
Street of Images at Rome, kissing him amorously now and then. A rather
amusing joke is still going the rounds: the world would have been a happier place
had Nero’s father Domitius married that sort of wife.” (p. 224-225)
(8) The History of the Vestal Virgins of Rome by Sir T. Cato Worsfold (London:
Rider & Co., 1934)
• Vestal Virgins began in 715 B.C. and ended under Theodosius in A.D. 394. (p.
11)
• “The origin of the Vestal Virgins as an organized cult, in Rome, may be said to
date from the time of Numa Pompilius (B.C. 715), a Sabine and second King of
Rome.” (p. 15)
• “The earliest Vestals whom we find mentioned in connection with ROMAN
History are Rhea Silvia, the mother of Romulus, and Tarpeia who betrayed the
Citadel to the Sabines.” (p. 15)
• “At Rome two brothers, Numito and Amulius, were rivals for the throne.
Amulius drove out his elder brother, and appointed the latter’s daughter, Rhea
Silvia, as a vestal, pretending to do her honour but really to prevent her having
children.” (Livy, I, 3) (p. 15)
• “Fire, which was not too readily obtained in primitive times, was looked upon as
sacred and its maintenance became the duty of the daughters of each family,
whilst engaged in their domestic functions, for the work of maintaining it could
not be relegated fittingly to slaves, and the mother of the family had numerous

11
 household duties to perform which precluded her from devoting the time and
attention necessary to the sacred fire.” (p. 16)
• “…It is on this account that they esteem Vesta to be a virgin, inasmuch as fire is
an inviolable element; and nothing can be born from it, since it consumes all
things, whatever it has seized upon.” (p. 16) (Lactantius, Divin. Inst., I, 12.)
• “As Vesta, who herself typified the earth, was to be regarded as the centre of the
universe, so fire, which is sacred to her, was placed in the centre of the City.”
(Dionysius, II, 66, and Plutarch, Numa, XI) (p. 17)
• Names of some of the first Vestals: Gegania, Verana, Canuleia, Tarpeia. (At first,
there were four…later, six.) (p. 22)
• No girl was eligible under 6 and over 10 years of age (p. 22)
• “The Lex Papia ordained that when a vacancy occurred, the Pontifex Maximus
should select twenty girls, and from this number, one was elected by ballot, which
must be held in public.” (p. 22)
• “A parent could offer his child voluntarily, and then the Senate made the selection
if there were more than one candidate.” (Tacitus, Ann., II. 86) (p. 22)
• “A girl was ineligible who stammered (lingua debili) or was deaf or had some
other bodily defect.” (Aulus Gelliu, I, 12, 3.) (p. 23)
• Ceremony of Initiation for a new Vestal: She was taken by the High Priest to the
Atrium Vestae (aka: Home of the Vestals), her hair was close cropped short like
that of modern nuns before they take their veil, “her hair was hung on a tree called
the Capillata, which grew by the Atrium, she was robed in the costume of the
Vestals, and the short hair was bound with a white woolen riband, or fillet, called
Vitta.” (p. 23)
• “It is quite evident that in the earlier traditions of the Cult, the Vestal Virgins were
regarded as the possible brides of the Deity as well as the priestesses of his rites.”
(p. 24)
• Religious Duties and Festivals attended by the Vestal Virgins:
o February 13th: Parentatio. Worship of the dead at the Tomb of the Vestal
Tarpeia.
o February 15th: The Lupercalia. Using up of the last of the alt-wafers.
o February 17th; The Fornacalia. In honour of Fornax, goddess of ovens,
that the baking of the corn might be successful.
o March 1st: The sacred fire re-kindled.
o March 6th: Sacrifice to Vesta. Augustus elected Pontifex Maximus.
o March 16th and 17th: Visit to Sacra Argeorum (the twenty-four places
consecrated by Numa for religious services).
o April 15th:The Fordicidia. Pregnant cows are sacrificed, and the High
Vestal burns the calves, that the people may be purified on the festival of
Pales.
o April 21st: The Parilia. Anniversary of the foundation of Rome.
o April 28th: Foundation by Augustus of a Temple to Vesta on the Palntine.
o May 1st: Rites of the Bona Dea. (Also on Dec. 3rd and 4th)
o May 7th-15th: The three elder Vestal Virgins plucked the first ears of corn
for their sacramental cake (molsa salsa)

12
 o May 15th: Vestals throw the Argei (straw men) into the Tiber. (Ovid, F.,
V, 621)
o June 9th: Festival of Vesta. (Opening of the Penus Vestae to the matrons.)
o June 15th: The sweepings of the Temple thrown down the Porta
Stercoraria.
o August 21st:Festival of Consus, god of counsel and harvest.
o August 25th: Festival of Ops Consiva, the goddess of seed time.
o Sept. 13th: Festival of Jupiter.
o October 15th: Sacrifice of the October horse
o Dec. 3rd & 4th: Rites of the Bona Dea.
[[all info pgs. 28-29]]
*make copies of pages 32-47 for my screenplay!! (they provide detailed descriptions of
the various festivals!!)
• Privileges of the Vestals:
o “The King (Numa) honoured them with great privileges, such as the power
to make a will during their father’s life, and to transact other affairs
without a guardian, like the mother of three boys now.” (Plutarch) (p. 48)
o “When they went out, they had the right to have a lector, carrying the
fasces, to march before them; and if, by accident, they met a person being
led to execution, his life was spared, always subject to an affirmation that
there had been no collusion, but death was the penalty for him who passed
under the litter.” (Plutarch, Numa, 10; Dio Cassius, XLVII, 19). (p. 48)
o “Until through this intermediary of the Vestal Virgins, and of his relatives
and neighbours, M. Emilius and Aurelius Cotta, he obtained a pardon.”
(Suetonius, Caesar, I.)
 “The reference is to Caesar, who had married a daughter of
Marius, the democratic leader, and when called upon by Sulla to
divorce her, had refused. He was heavily fined, but escaping, left
Rome, and shifted his quarters daily, bribing his pursuers, until
through the mediation of the Vestal Virgins, Emilius, and Aurelius
Cotta, he was pardoned. The point of this reference is that it shows
that the social and political influence of the Vestals could be
classed with that of well-known men like those mentioned.” (p.
49)
*They had the right to be buried inside the city, unlike any other priests and priestesses.
(Servius on AEn. XI, 206) (p. 50)
*Right to give evidence in a Court of Justice, without taking the oath. (Aul. Gell., VII, 7,
2) (p. 51)
* Privilege of good seats at Gladiatorial Games even though the traditional Roman rule
was that omen occupied the uppermost (worst) seats at the Games. (p. 51)
*Bequeath property independently of wardship. (Gaius. I, 145; Plutarch, Numa, 10, and
Gellius, VII, 7, 2) (p. 51)
*Vestals were removed from the official residence and taken care of by some high
society elderly lady whenever they were sick. (Pliny the Younger, Epist., VII, 19,
translation of W.C. Melmoth, 1746) (p. 52)

13
*Only wore white, in contrast to the purple or red worn by other branches of priesthood.
Shoes were also white. (p. 53)
*Hair was cropped very short during their initiation ceremony, but there are some
accounts of older Vestals having hair in a bun, so perhaps they could grow the hair again.
(p. 53)
• “While attending a sacrifice the Vestals had their heads bound with a band
(infula) and covered with a hood (suffibulum). They wore a garment next their
skin called “tunica interior,” or “interula,” or, later on, “subucula.” (Horace, Sat.,
I., 2, 132) (p. 53)
• The severe penalties for those Vestals who were careless in their performance of
duties to the order were “not a matter of a rigid moral code, but [were] due to a
superstitious fear of the vengeance of the God to whom alone the Vestal Virgins
belonged, body and soul.” (p. 59)
• Only 22 were alleged to have been false to their vows during he thousand years of
Vestal Virgins’ existence. (p. 59)
o “Of these, eighteen were put to death in the prescribed manner, two
committed suicide, one was seduced by Nero, and there is no record of her
punishment, whilst the remaining one became the Empress of
Heliogabalus and died A.D. 225.” (p. 59)
o “For smaller offences, these virgins were punished with stripes; and
sometimes the Pontifex Maximus gave them the discipline naked, in some
dark place and under cover of a veil; but she that broke her vow of chastity
was buried alive by the Colline Gate.” (p. 60)
 “In this, are placed a bed, a lighted lamp, and some slight
provisions, such as bread, water, milk, and oil, as they thought it
impious to take off a person consecrated with the most awful
ceremonies, by such a death as that of famine. The criminal is
carried to punishment through the Forum, in a litter well covered
without, and bound up in such a manner that her cries cannot be
heard. The people silently make way for the litter, and follow it
with marks of extreme sorrow and dejection…When the litter
comes to the place appointed, the officers loose the cords, the high-
priet, with hands lifted up towards heaven, offers some private
prayers just before the fatal minute, then takes out the prisoner,
who is covered with a veil, and places her upon the steps which
lead down to the cell; after this he retires with he rest of the priests,
and when she is gone down, the steps are taken away, and the cell
is covered with earth; so that the place is made level with the rest
of the mount.” (Plutarch, Numa, Lnghorne’s translation) (p. 60)
 The Pontifex Maximus had the power of punishing the Vestal
Virgins for disciplinary offences, without consulting the Sacred
College; however, in the case of any offence against chastity, the
entire Sacred College would assemble. (p. 60)
 Plutarch asks: “What is there in all Rome so sacred and venerable
as the Vestal Virgins, to whose care alone the preservation of the
eternal fire is committed? Yet, if their chastity be violated and

14
 their reputation stained, they are buried alive; for when they
presume to commit any offence against their gods, they instantly
lose that veneration which they claimed as attendants in their
service.” (Plutarch, Tib. Gracchus, anonymous translation,
published by Tonson, 1683) (p. 60-61)
 WHY Plutarch believed Vestals should be buried alive:
 “What is the reason that the Romans punish the holy Vestall
Virgins (who have suffered their bodies to be abused and defiled), by
no other meanes, than by interring them quicke under the ground. Is
this the cause, for that the manner is to burne the bodies of them that
be dead; and to burie (by the meanes of fire), their bodies who have
not devoutly and religiously kept or preserved the divine fire, seemed
not just nor reasonable? Or haply, because they thought it was not
lawful to kill any person who had been consecrated with the most holy
and religious ceremonies in the world; nor to lay violent hands upon a
woman consecrated; and to die of their owne selves; namely to let
them downe into a little vaulted chamber under the earth, where they
left with them a lampe burning, and some bread, with a little water and
milke; and having so done, cast earth and covered them aloft. And yet
for all this, can they not be exempt from a superstitious feare of going
over this place, performe (I know not what) anniversary services and
rites, for to appease and pacifie their ghosts.” (Plutarch, Romane
Questions, XCVI. Translation by Philemon Holland)
Livy often interrupts historical description with cases of crimen
incesti. (p. 61)
-Unfaithful virgins were originally whipped to death; this was the
fate of Ilia or Rhea Silvia of Alba Longa. Rome changed this. (p. 62)
* “Now the Pontifical law ordains that she shall be buried
alive.” (Dionysius, I, 78, Spelman’s trans., 1758) (p. 62)
Tarquin was the first to institute the punishment: “The Pontiffs
were informed that one of the Vestals, who reerved the holy fire, by
name, Opimia, had los her virginity, and polluted he holy rites. The
Pontiffs, having by tortures, and other proofs, found the information to
be true, took from her head the fillets, and, conducting her through the
Forum, buried her alive within the walls of he city, and, causing the
two men who had debauched her to be scourged and put to death.”
(Ib., VIII, 89) (p. 62)
• “Lucius Pinarius and Publius Furius were created consuls in 471 B.C.
Information was given to the Pontiffs by a slave that one of the Vestal Virgins,
who have the care of the perpetual fire, by name Urbinia, had lost her virginity,
and, though impure, performed the public sacrifices.” (Ib., IX, 40) (p. 62)
• “The reproduction of species, whether human, animal or vegetable, became a
religion amongst primitive peoples because it was a necessity in the struggle for
existence.” (p. 64)
• EX: Posthuma, a Vestal nun, “a virgin guiltless for any deede done; but scarcely
of good name and fame; by reason that she was suspected for her apparall and

15
 going more light and garish in her attire; yea, and for her wit, more conceited and
pleasant than became a maiden, and nothing respective of the speech of the
world.” (Livy IV, 44) (p. 66)
• A Vestal letting the fire go out was punished/burned, and then one managed to
restart it and was celebrated. (p. 67)
• Suetonius (Nero, 28) tells us that the Emperor violated a Vestal Virgin named
Rubria, and further that he summoned “to the show of wrestlers and other
champions also the Vestal Virgins, because at Olympia, the Priestesses likewise
of Ceres are allowed to see the Games there.” (Suetonius, Nero, 12). (p. 71)
• “During the reigns of such abnormal Emperors as Nero, Commodus and
Heliogabalus, the Vestals and their charges, the holy relics, had unpleasant
adventures, but til the conversion of Constantine to Christianity (A.D. 313) their
position was in no way weakened or even threatened, and even under Constantine
and his Christian successors, the Vestal Establishment showed a remarkable
tenacity of life. Under Augustus the status of the Vestal Virgins received serious
imperial attention.” (p. 70) Suetonius describes how Augustus increased the
numbers and the emoluments of all priests, especially the Vestal Virgins in his
Augustus,XXXI. There’s also discussion of how Augustus revived certain ancient
ceremonies like the rites of the Lupercalia, which had gradually fallen into disuse.
• Emperor Domition accused Cornelia, chief of the Vestal Virgins, of incest,
decided she should be buried alive, as a means to make his reign illustrious by
such a strong example, and condemned her without allowing her a chance to
speak in her own defense. Ironically, he himself “had not only been guilty of thee
same crime with his brother’s daughter, but had also been the occasion of her
death: for she died of abortion in her widowhood.” (p. 71)
• In A.D. 211-217, Caracalla “cut off the flower of the nobility and gentry. Then
sent he into the provinces and massacred all the presidents and procurators…yea,
whole nights were spent in such tragicall executions of all sorts of people. He
buried the Vestal Virgins quicke, pretending they had lost their virginity.”
(Herodian, IV, 6, 4, out of the Greeke originall 6290) (p. 72)
• Worst of all, Heliogabalus (A.D. 218-222), who had declared himself the true god
and tried to impose his personal cult on the Roman world, committed incest with
a Vestal Virgin, Julia Aquilia Severa, removed the secret relics of the Vestals,
profaned the worship of the Roman people, he broke into the inner shrine (penus)
of Vesta, which only the virgins and priests enter, defiled himself and the men
who were with him, attempted to carry of the holy relic, but only managed to steal
one of many copies of it. (All this according to Lampridius) (p. 72-73)
o According to Herodian, Heliogabalus also pretended he was in love, stole
a Vestal Virgin out of the sacred house in Rome, married her, and then
sent the distraught Senate an apology letter. (p. 73)
*Even when Christian emperor Constantine (Edict of Milan, A.D. 313)’s sons, Constans
and Constantius (A.D. 360) decreed that temples were to immediately close and no more
sacrifices could be made, the statesman Symmchus, “the last of the Pagans,” (A.D. 340-
410), says that Constantius “suffered the privileges of the Vestal Virgins to remain
inviolate…he never attempted to deprive the Empire of the sacred worship of antiquity.”

16
(G.P. Baker, Constantine the Great and the Christian Revolution, Gibbon, chaps. XVI
and XXV) (p. 75)
o However, during the reign of Jovian (A.D. 363-4), the chief Vestal Virgin, Coeia
Concodia became a Christian and her last act on leaving the Atrium was to erase
her name from a pedestal, which was found in 1883 with her name erased. (p. 76)
[[there’s a sketching of this statue on page 76!!!]]
o Around 375-380, Emperor Gratian abolished the office of Pontifex Maximus and
the functions of the Vestal Virgins, eventually closing the Temple of Vesta. (p.
85)
• “The word Penus means, “that which is inside the house’ 9cf. penetralia, penitus),
it also means a store or sanctuary. It must be remembered that every Roman
house had its own Storeroom (penus), which was deemed holy because the
Penates, or Gods of the Storeroom, dwelt therein. Thus in every house Vesta, the
Goddess of the Hearth, was intimately bound up in the Roman mind with the
Penates, and was indeed reckoned as one of them. It follows therefore that the
Penus already sacred in the common Roman home, became the Hoy of Holies in
the House of the Vestals.” (p. 117)
o “To the west of the Penus is a well of spring water, 16ft. 8 in. deep, lined
with blocks of tufa. To the north of the well is a small rectangular tufa
base, 4ft. by 4 ft. 10 in., upon which is cut a circle 2ft. 10 in. in diameter.
Upon a loose stone is a part of an inscription…It apparently belonged
either to the Temple of Vesta or to the Regia, but it is inscribed: “CN.
DOMITIVS. M.F. CALVINVS PONTIFEX COS. ITER. IMPER. DE
MANIBEIS.”

(8) From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and category in Roman religion, by
Ariadne Staples (London and New York: Routledge, 1998)
• “At any given time there were six Vestals who might range in age from early
childhood to extreme old age. A newly selected Vestal had to be between six and
ten years old and was committed to serve for a period of thirty years.” (p. 129)
• “Suspicions of unchastity and its almost inevitable aftermath—burial alive—arose
typically during periods of political instability.” (p. 129)
• “The Vestal Virgins were Rome’s most extraordinary reigiousphenmenon. At any
given time there were six Vestals who migh range in age from early childhood to
extreme old age. A newly selected Vestal had to be between six and ten years old
and was committed to serve for a period of thirty years. After that she was free to
leave the priesthood but could choose to serve until her death. Many chose to
remain.” (p. 129)
• “Individually and collectively the Vestals were an embodiment of virginity.” (p.
129)
• “Then the high priest, after stretching his arms towards heaven and uttering
certain mysterious prayers, brings forth the culprit, who is closely veiled, and
places her on the steps leading down into the chamber. After this he turns away
his face as do the rest of the priests, and when she has gone down, the steps are
taken up, and great quantities of earth are thrown into the entrance of the

17
 chamber, hiding it away, and making the place level with the rest of the mound.”
(Plutarch, Num, 10)
• Unlike the gory, celebrated deaths which were often viewed as entertainment by
the Roman public, the death ritual of an unchaste Vestal virgin was surrounded by
such somberness and a heavy silence, which served as a remarkable contrast to
the bustling city. (p. 132)
• “Nobody asked why it was just these six women and no others who were so
cruelly put to death if they were suspected of losing their virginity. Nobody
asked, because everybody knew the answer: the Vestals were different.” (p. 132)
• LIVE INTERMENT!!!
• “The first thing to note is the complexity of the ritual. The ritualistic nature of the
punishment of the Vestal is all the more striking when compared with the way her
alleged lover was punished. He was publicly flogged to death, without ceremony
as far as we can tell.” (p. 133)
• “There are instances where some of the expiatory rites were recommended by the
pontiffs, but these were rare. However, it was the pontifical college alone that
tried and condemned a suspected Vestal. This is of fundamental importance.” (p.
133)
• Rather than being cast out of the city or sewn up into sacks and thrown into the
sea, as other labeled prodigia (like Androgynes and Obsequens) were, the
unchaste Vestals were buried within the city. (p. 134)
• Proof that Vestal burials typically occurred during times of severe political crisis
= there are only two recorded instances of Vestals being interred for unchastity
during the period between the first Punic war and the end of the Republic. (p.
134) All victims of the ensuing panic crisis!!
• Unlike a matron, a Vestal’s virginity “represented life and death, stability and
chaos for the Roman state.” (p. 135)
• “A Vestal’s virginity was indispensable for the political well-being of Rome. But
—and herein lies a paradox—the loss of her virginity was equally indispensable
for the political well-being of Rome. A single lapse by a single priestess
threatened the very existence of the state. In such an event the only way to restore
the status quo was to rid the state of the offending Vestal in the manner described
by Plutarch.” (p. 135)
o Despite the importance of this virginity, however, the six Vestals were in
no way secluded. Regularly, they left the Atrium Vestae, and had a social
life similar to that of any upper-class Roman woman, attending dinner
parties, being mistaken for normal upper-class women following such
dinner parties (according to Dio Cassius’s writings), etc. (p. 136)
o “The gods themselves revealed her crime by means of prodigia.” (p. 136)
o The Vestal was allowed to be at the trial and defend herself. (p. 136)
o The authority of the pontifical college and particularly the Pontifex
Maximus over the Vestal Virgins was an ancient tradition, thought to date
bck to the time of Tarquinius Priscus. So when in 114, there was a tribune
established in order to re-try two Vestals who had already been acquitted
by the pontifical college of unchastity, it could only have been due to the

18
 emotional frenzy and not so much a desire to reaffirm Roman tradition and
state security. (p. 137)
o The ritual burial of a guilty Vestal repeated three times in 114.
o “If the state was in trouble the spectacle of the burial of an unchaste Vestal
would restore hope for its recovery. If the state was peaceful and
prosperous the Vestals were clearly chaste.” (p. 137)
 Domitian’s description of the Vestal, Cornelia, who said “Me
Caesar incestam putat, qua sacra faciente vicit, triumphavit?
“How could Caesar think I am polluted when as long as I carried
out my sacred duties he has conquered and triumphed?”
• Also, “the trial of two Vestals Opimia and Floronia in 216 BC
followed the near annihilation of the Roman army by Hannibal at
Cannae. The trials of Aemilia, Licinia and Marcia in 114 BC came in
the wake of the destruction fo the army of C. Porcius Cato by the
Scordisci in Thrace. These defeats gave rise to intense and widespread
emotional upheaval in Rome itself.” (p. 136) MORE THAN ONE
VESTAL INVOLVED IN EACH CASE!!!
• APPEARANCE of virginity was also important! “Plutarch says that
Crassus caused the prosecution of the Vestal Licinia by associating
with her to closely. Both Crassus and Licinia were tried and acquitted,
for it turned out that all he wanted to do was buy at a bargain price
some property that she owned. Livy records that the Vestal Postumia
was put on trial because her attractive appearance and free and easy
manner had aroused suspicions of unchastity. She also was acquitted
with the warning to dress and behave in a manner ‘more suitable to
sanctity than coquetry’.” (p. 138)
• Rigorous qualifications for a prospective Vestal: “She had to be aged
between six and ten; be free of any kind of physical blemish or
impediment; to have father and mother both living—patrima et
matrima; and to be in patria potestas. This last injunction was further
qualified. Her father should not have been emancipated in any way
from the potestas of his father, which meant that if the girl’s
grandfather was alive she would have to be, like her father, in his
ppotestas.” [legitimate children—the legal relationship and will that
would occur only for legitimate children, and had to be sought out for
children who were not obviously legitimate.] (p. 138-139) …Vestals
were made free from patria potestas. (p. 141)
• “The legal rules effected a Vestals’ separation from the family both
individually and institutionally. This ‘separateness’ manifested itself
in various ways. For example when a Vestal became ill she was sent
for nursing not to one of her female relatives but to the home of a
selected matron.” (p. 143)
(9) M. Beard, “Re-reading (Vestal) virginity,” in R. Hawley and B. Levick (eds.),
Women in antiquity: new assessments (1995)
• “These priestesses always seemed to resist simple classification as daughters:
their priestly dress was the stola, the traditional costume of the Roman

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 married woman; they arranged their hair in the style of the Roman bride on
the day of her wedding; and their legal relationship with the Pontifex
Maximus seems, in some respects, to have mirrored the relationship of wives
to their husbands.” (p. 167)
• “Their funny mix of categories, both/neither virgins and/nor matrons, was
what showed them to be ‘sacral’.” (p. 167)
• “Roman polytheism is a complex system. Its claims to ‘meaning’, its
hermeneutic functions, depend on that system(at)ic quality. ‘Meaning’ resides
not in any individual element of the polytheism (whether god, festival, priest,
ritual…), but is constructed in the connections, oppositions and tensions
within the system, between its different elements.” (p. 170)
• “You do not have to look very hard among the priestly groups of Rome to find
a systematic concern with gender, its norms and transgressions; a series of
debates on and around the definition of Roman sexual categories—of which
the Vestal ambiguities are just one part.” (p. 170)
• By their simultaneous connection to and contrast with the cult of Magna
Mater (the galli), the Vestals were paraded as inherently Roman.
o “The priests of Magna Mater (the galli) are almost as well known as
the Vestals for breaking the gender rules: self-castrated eunuchs (it is
said), flamboyantly female in appearance, loud cross-dressers; ‘not-
men’ at loose in the city of Rome, discomfiting hangers-on of an
eastern cult…The galli were as ‘not-Roman’ as the Vestals were
‘Roman’; the galli as ‘other’ as the Vestals were ‘native’. Yet, at the
same time, that opposition was also a connection, made to be
displayed in contiguity; Roman literature and culture put the Vestals
and the galli together in order to parade their difference. Like all
differences, it could only be perceived by comparison; difference
inevitably entails system.” (p. 171)
o What were these writers writing ABOUT when they wrote about the
Vestals? Who wrote about Vestals, to whom, and why?
o In Seneca and other writings, “a series of arguments follow—for and
(mostly) against her chastity. Could she count as chaste if she had been
kissed? Who, anyway, could countenance a priestess who had lived in
the company of whores? If she had been so virtuous, why had she not
been ransomed? Had she not, on the other hand, defended her chastity
with greater commitment than women usually displayed? She had
literally fought for her virginity. But then again she was now a
murderer, and yet judged innocent of the crime. These arguments are
extended over pages and pages of the text of Seneca, and of other
declaimers. Within this elite male institution, at the centre of Roman
declamatory culture, not only was female virginity (and its definitions)
a major theme, but that theme was played necessarily involve a
reinstatement of this kind of text at the centre of the argument; a
reinstatement of virginity and its transgressions above the neat
schematics of ambiguity.” (p. 173)

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 o Nobody knew what was inside the temple except the Vestals. A lot of
speculation by the masses merely belies the ambiguity of Roman
identity, which the Romans themselves supported by placing an
ambiguous shrine and cult at its heart. They weren’t masculine. They
weren’t feminine. They weren’t matrons. They were simply Vestals.
(p. 174)
IDEAS FOR PAPER OUTLINE THUS FAR:
OVERALL QUESTION: Why was the punishment for crimen incesti appropriate
despite its severity and because of its nuances?

I. How the Vestals began historically (LIVY’s description), how they were
selected, and how/why their virginity was vital to the role they played.
II. Historical/social reasons why their adultery would have threatened the heart of
the Roman social and state order

…somehow incorporate Greece?

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