She would not technically be punished, but would vanish from sight yet remain in the city, and thus expiate her offence; she would not be interred, but instead descend into a "habitable room": When condemned by the college of pontifices, she was stripped of her vittae and other badges of office, was scourged, was attired like a corpse, placed in a close litter, and borne through the forum attended by her weeping kindred, with all the ceremonies of a real funeral, to a rising ground called the Campus Sceleratus just within the city walls, close to the Colline gate. Women in Rome were not able to own property as long as their pater familiasor, if they did not have one, a male tutorwere alive, as the men would control business affairs. The chief Vestal was probably the most influential and independent of Rome's high priestesses, having commitment to the maintenance of several different cults, maintaining personal connections to her birth family and cultivating the society of her equals among the Roman elite. She would be buried alive, and her seducer would be flogged to death in public. In this rite, a young girl is transferred from her father to the College of Pontiffs, thereby inducting her into the cult of Vesta. Vestal Virgins, in Roman religion, six priestesses, representing the daughters of the royal house, who tended the state cult of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. . Who were the Vestal Virgins and why do we still use the term to define "pure" women or those who are beyond reproach? From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins. Inge Kroppenberg (2010) "Law, Religion, and Constitution of the Vestal Virgins", harvnb error: no target: CITEREFWildfang2006 (. One of these 7 places may be Americas next national park, Where to stay in Manila: the Filipino capital's coolest hotels, This Polynesian canoe is set to voyage 43,000 miles, The inside guide to Cdiz: an underrated Andalucian city break, Crossing the desert: from incense route to pilgrimage route, Experience a ranch stay in Canada's cowboy country. As it was forbidden to shed a Vestal Virgins blood, the method of execution was immuration: being bricked up in a chamber and left to starve to death. First-century A.D. historian Plutarch wrote that Numa may have considered the nature of fire to be pure and uncorrupted and so entrusted it to uncontaminated and undefiled bodies. Numa is credited by Livy, in his History of Rome, with formalizing other key Roman cults, including those of Jupiter and Mars. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were not the property of a paterfamilias. Sebesta, Judith Lynn, Bonfante, Larissa (editors), "The World of Roman Costume: Wisconsin Studies in Classics". Takcs, Sarolat A. Vestal Virgins, Sibyls, and Matrons: Women in Roman Religion. Now Licinia was the owner of a pleasant villa in the suburbs [of Rome] which Crassus wished to get at a low price, and it was for this reason that he was forever hovering about the woman and paying his court to her, until he fell under the abominable suspicion. Portrait sculpture of a chief Vestal Virgin from the 2nd Century AD. [21], The chief Vestal (Virgo Vestalis Maxima or Vestalium Maxima, "greatest of the Vestals") oversaw the work and morals of the Vestals, and was a member of the College of Pontiffs. Thus she preserved her sanctity to the last and displayed all the tokens of a chaste woman. The first 10 years were spent training for their duties. [38] Their person was sacrosanct; anyone who assaulted a Vestal was, in effect, assaulting Rome and its gods, and could be killed with impunity. We can therefore see that Vestal Virgins had a very important and unique role in Roman society. Unlike other Roman women, Vestals enjoyed certain privileges: In addition to being able to own property and enjoying certain tax exemptions, Vestals were emancipated from their familys patria potestas,patriarchal power. The dying of the flame was also associated with the unchastity of a Vestal, as they were required to remain virgins from the time they were chosen (between the ages of six to ten years) to the end of their 30 years of service to Vesta. [34] On May 1, Vestals officiated at Bona Dea's public-private, women-only rites at her Aventine temple. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vestal-Virgins, UNRV History - Biography of Vestal Virgins, World History Encyclopedia - Vestal Virgin, Roman religion, Ancient Origins - Vestal Virgins: Powerful Priestesses of Romes Sacred Flame. Vesta's acolytes vowed to serve her for at least thirty years, to study and practise her rites in service of the Roman State, and to maintain their chastity throughout. Note the sacred flame in the centre that represented the goddess Vesta. She was responsible for overseeing the household maintenance, including instructing slaves. They had general oversight in matters of state religion involving religious law and procedure, but only in an advisory capacity: their rulings, of which they kept records, had to be put into effect by magistrates. Vestal Virgin. Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Younger, was the nephew and adopted son of Pliny the Elder. Except once a year for the kalendae (first day of March), extinguishing the sacred fire resulted in all kinds of horrible and innovative punishments for the Vestal Virgins who were responsible for tending to this flame. It was the Vestals job to never let the sacred flame die out, as the Romans believed that it would endanger Rome. She repeated this until she was led away to punishment, whether she was innocent or not, I do not know, but she certainly acted innocent. Every year in June, Ancient Romans celebrated the Festival of Vesta, Goddess of Hearth. The Vestals' activities thus provided a shared link to various public, and possibly some private cults. If Vestas flame were to burn out, the Vestals could face serious punishment, the worst resulting in the sentencing by the Pontifical college to be buried alive within the city walls. The Vestals were committed to the priesthood before puberty (when 610years old) and sworn to celibacy for a minimum period of 30years. The following quotes can shed some more light on the lives of Vestals: This first quote is by Aulus Gellius (1250-180 CE), describing the rite of captio. They also set out a different life than the women of Rome at that time. [72] The stola communicates the message of "hands off" and asserts their virginity. Vestals and matrons wore a long linen palla over a white woolen stola, a rectangular female citizen's wrap, equivalent to the male citizen's semi-circular toga. Why were they different to other women? The initial charges against the Vestals concerned were almost certainly trumped up, and may have been politically motivated. Vesta (Classical Latin: ) is the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion.She was rarely depicted in human form, and was more often represented by the fire of her temple in the Forum Romanum.Entry to her temple was permitted only to her priestesses, the Vestal Virgins, who guarded particular sacred objects within, prepared flour and sacred salt (mola salsa) for official . Unlike other women, Licinia could own property precisely because she was a Vestal Virgin. A regular Roman womans life would be categorized into two stages: being a marriageable virgin, and then being a matrona (who is either married or widowed). But what was life really like for these Vestal Virgins? [11] It is not clear from Zosimos's narrative whether Vesta's cult was still functioning, maintained by that single Vestal, or moribund. In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( Latin: Vestls, singular Vestlis [wstals]) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. This legal status set them apart from other Romans, both male and female, as they did not have to go through the process of emancipation by capitis deminutio to obtain this status. The Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, and one of their most important functions was the maintenance of the sacred fire within the Temple of Vesta on the Forum Romanum. When Augustus became pontifex maximus, and thus supervisor of all religion, he donated his house to the Vestals. London: Routledge, 1997. In ancient Rome, Vestal Virgins were tasked with keeping vigil over the flame of Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth. [5], The Vestals were a powerful and influential priesthood. Patria potestas, which in English is'Power of the Father'; a legally enforceable right that the eldest male in a Roman family had to kill his children or sell them into slavery. Traditionally, Roman women could only act through their husbands or father. The Vestals long tradition gave Romans a reassuring thread of continuity and may explain the Temple of Vestas traditional circular form, a style associated with rustic huts in the citys deep past. On being selected, their life was spent at the Atrium Vestae in a surrogate family, presided over by older Vestals. In 483 BC, the Vestal Oppia was executed for incestum merely on the basis of various portents, and allegations that she neglected her Vestal duties. Towards the end of the Republican era, when Sulla included the young Julius Caesar in his proscriptions, the Vestals interceded on Caesar's behalf and gained him pardon. Listen. Vestals were also unique in that they had many rights not held by other women. These vestals, who were chosen as children, indeed had to abstain from sex for as long as they tended to the sacred fire. [29][30], The Vestals guarded various sacred objects kept in Vesta's penus, including the Palladium a statue of Pallas Athene which had supposedly been brought from Troy and a large, presumably wooden phallus, used in fertility rites and at least one triumphal procession, perhaps slung beneath the triumphal general's chariot. Indeed many articles have been devoted to a careful analysis of individual, apparently . Who were the Vestal Virgins, and what was their job? Youtube, uploaded by TED-Ed, May 30, 2017, https://youtu.be/ER0Cu0KQFqM. Reconstruction drawing of the temple of Vesta. They could make their own wills and give evidence in a court of law without being obliged to swear an oath. They were responsible for maintaining the sacred fire within the Temple of Vesta in the Forum Romanum.Other duties included performing rituals in regards to the Goddess Vesta, and baking the sacred salt cake to be used at numerous ceremonies in the year. These were very rare events; most vestals retired with a generous pension and universal respect. She raising her hands now to Vesta, now to the other gods, cried out many things, but this especially: Caesar thinks that I am impure, I who have performed so many rites, by which he conquered and triumphed!. Vestal virgins were chosen from highborn families and were granted privileges that would have been unimaginable for other women in Ancient Rome. Such charges were very serious, as the consequence for a Vestal being un-chaste was death. Chosen as young girls, the priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, swore a 30-year vow of chastity and in turn were granted rights, privileges, and power unavailable to other women in Rome. As well as their obligations on behalf of Rome, Vestals had extraordinary rights and privileges, some of which were granted to no others, male or female. Romans had a duty to report any suspected prodigies to the Senate, who consulted the pontifex maximus, the pontifices and the haruspices to determine whether the matter must be tried as a consequence of incestum (impure acts, or loss of virginity), or dismissed. How can you tell if a wild animal really needs your help? Because she did not need a male guardians consent, a Vestal was free to buy and sell property, free slaves, write her own will, inherit property, and gain a substantial income from renting lands and buildings. The Pontifices were immediately dispatched to see to her death and burial. A Vestal who committed incestum breached Rome's contract with the gods; she was a contradiction, a visible religious embarrassment. Not in this marine reserve, See scenes from classic fairy taleswith a Nigerian twist, How the Magna Carta of AIDS activism sparked a revolution, Meet the next generation of National Geographic explorers, Colossal crabs may hold clue to Amelia Earhart fate, The ancient history of tattoosrevealed by inked-up mummies, The cave of bones may hold the mysteries of human origins. Pliny the Elder tacitly accepted these powers as fact:[7]. If Vestas flame were to burn out, the Vestals could face serious punishment, the worst resulting in the sentencing by the Pontifical college to be buried alive within the city walls. In the following passage from Sextus Pompeius Festus (late 2nd Century CE), we can see the description of a Vestals hair style. Color: Santi Prez. The treatment is easy to administer and lasts a lifetime. Of the three Vestals executed for incestum between the first Punic War (216) and the end of the Republic (113111), each was followed by a nameless, bloodless form of human sacrifice seemingly reserved for times of extreme crisis, supposedly at the recommendation of the Sibylline Books; the living burial in the Forum Boarium of a Greek man and woman, and a Gaulish man and woman. Women in Rome were not able to own property as long as their pater familiasor, if they did not have one, a male tutorwere alive, as the men would control business affairs. We can therefore see that this hair style is associated with virginity as well as sacristy, as it is an ancient style (see image 1). 80 years ago, young men of color were attacked for their unpatriotic fashion choices, leading to the Zoot Suit Riots. [48], If discovered, the paramour of a guilty Vestal was beaten to death by the pontifex maximus, in the Forum Boarium or on the Comitium. While her status as virgin is common to most accounts, her status as a vestal was likely the mythographer's invention, to cast her lust, greed and treason in the worst possible light.[80]. [65], Postumia, though innocent according to Livy,[66] was suspected and tried for unchastity on grounds of her immodest attire and over-familiar manner. Note as well its central location in the Roman forum. [63] Dionysius also writes that the Roman king Tarquinius Priscus instituted live burial as a punishment for Vestal inchastity, and inflicted it on the Vestal Pinaria;[64] and that whipping with rods sometimes preceded the immuration, and that this was done to Urbinia in 471 BCE, in a time of pestilence and plebeian unrest. At the present day, too, it is a general belief, that our Vestal virgins have the power, by uttering a certain prayer, to arrest the flight of runaway slaves, and to rivet them to the spot, provided they have not gone beyond the precincts of the City. We can therefore see that Vestal Virgins had a very important and unique role in Roman society. We can see that she is not only literally, but also symbolically taken from her father, as the rite removes her fathers potestas over her. Again, this separation from her family meant that a Vestal could fully devote herself to the religious rituals of Rome, instead of to the rituals of a single family. A bust of Numa Pompilius from the Villa Albani Museum in Rome, believed to have been sculpted in the Roman Imperial Period. Image of a Roman Vestal Virgin. Here's why this sacred group of women was so very, very important, and the surprising amount of power they wielded as a result. [52] In 114 Licinia and two of her colleagues, Vestals Aemilia and Marcia, were accused of multiple acts of incestum. [43], Extinction of the sacred fire through Vestal negligence could be expiated by the scourging or beating of the offender, carried out "in the dark and through a curtain to preserve their modesty". Servius claims that during the Vestalia, the Lupercalia and on September 13, the three youngest Vestals reaped unripened far (spelt wheat, or possibly emmer wheat). Taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Temple_of_Vesta_3D.jpg. Meet the animals that can handle extreme heat. Such charges were very serious, as the consequence for a Vestal being un-chaste was death. Wildfang, Robin Lorsch. [69] A Vestal's hair was bound into a white, priestly infula (head-covering or fillet) with red and white ribbons, usually tied together behind the head and hanging loosely over the shoulders. [47][45] The end of Roman monarchy and the beginnings of the Republic involved extreme social tensions between Rome and her neighbours, and competition for power and influence between Rome's aristocrats and the commoner majority. 2.34), also make mentions of this ability. Vestal Virgins were by far the most influential women in Ancient Rome. They were then free to marry, though few of them did. In addition to room and board, they were entitled to their own bodyguard of lictors. The cult is believed to date to the 7th century bc; like other non-Christian cults, it was banned in ad 394 by Theodosius I. 135-137 (note 14). Priesthoods with similar functions to the Vestals of Rome had an ancient and deeply embedded religious role in various surrounding Latin communities. The rectangular pools formed a part of the complexs long, central patio. The following passage by Plutarch describes how, in 75 CE, the Vestal Virgin Licinia fell under the suspicion of having an affair with Marcus Crassus (115-53 BCE) because he was spending a lot of time with her trying to purchase the property she owned. From at least the mid-Republican era, the pontifex maximus chose Vestals by lot from a group of twenty high-born candidates at a gathering of their families and other Roman citizens. And in a way it was his avarice that absolved him from the charge of corrupting the Vestal, and he was acquitted by the judges. They were supervised by a senior vestal but chosen and governed by Rome's leading male priest, the Pontifex maximus; in the Imperial era, this meant the emperor. Sacred fire of Vesta Coordinates: 41.891742N 12.486176E The sacred fire of Vesta was a sacred eternal flame in ancient Rome. Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. It was also in this part of the temple that they probably kept the palladium, the statue of Pallas Athena that the legendary founder of Rome, Aeneas, brought to Italy after the destruction of Troy, his home cityanother aspect of the Vestal cult that tied Romes origins into an ennobling and ancient tradition. For when he [Domitian] desired to bury alive Cornelia the Senior Vestal. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. The cult would not, however, survive Christianity. . This great empire flourished through innovation and incorporation of the diverse cultures they conquered, such as the adoption of Latin and gladiatorial combat. Even as their flame was extinguished, aspects of the cult may have passed into the new faith as it swept through the Mediterranean. This is something a regular Roman woman would not have been able to do, as although women were allowed to appear in the court they would have to remain mute; their evidence would be written down earlier on and then read out loud in court by a man. Because of their required chastity, however, the Vestal Virgins did not hold the expectation of raising children and taking care of a family like regular women. The Vestal duty brought great honor and afforded greater privileges to women who served in that role. Taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Temple_of_Vesta_3D.jpg. London: Routledge, 2006. As well, Vestals were the only Roman women allowed to testify orally in open court. Legal. The Vestal Virgins were a specially selected group of six women. Un sacerdocio femenino en la religin pblica romana". The vestal virgins did serve a very important propose for Ancient Rome. There are three charges associated with this - maxima, media, and minima. A second-century B.C. In the same way, the Vestals tended Vestas flame for the good of the state. As well, Vestals were the only Roman women allowed to testify orally in open court. The pontifex maximus (Tiberius) "consoled" the failed candidate with a dowry of 1million sesterces. History Origins. It was permanent, irreversible; no piaculum or expiation could restore it or compensate its loss.[43]. One of the most remarkable elements of this story is the fact that Licinia owned a villa in the first place. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Temple_of_Vesta_3D.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trattato_generale_di_archeologia257.png, https://de.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:VestalisMaxima.jpg, VestalisMaxima Photo by Rabax63 is licensed under a. These charges can involve loss of citizenship and freedom at the extreme end to loss of belonging to a particular family at the lesser end. 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