Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

VESTALES.

411

YE STALES.

ma, or Virgo Maxima, and we find also the
expressions Yestalium vetustissima and tres
maximae. Their chief office was to watch
by turns, night and day, the everlasting fire
which blazed upon the altar of Vesta, its
extinction being considered as the most fear-
ful of all prodigies, and emblematic of the
extinction of the state. If such misfortune
befell, and was caused by the carelessness of
the priestess on duty, she was stripped and
scourged by the pontifex maximus, in the
dark and with a screen interposed, and he
rekindled the flame by the friction of two
pieces of wood from a felix arbor. Their
other ordinary duties consisted in presenting
offerings to the goddess at stated times, and
in sprinkling and purifying the shrine each
morning with water, which according to the
institution of Numa was to be drawn from
the Egerian fount, although in later times it
was considered lawful to employ any water
from a living spring or running stream,
but not such as had passed through pipes.
When used for sacrificial purposes it was
mixed with muries, that is, salt which had
been pounded in a mortar, thrown into an
earthen jar, and baked in an oven. They
assisted moreover at all great public holy
rites, such as the festivals of the Bona Dea,
and the consecration of temples ; they were
invited to priestly banquets, and we are told
that they were present at the solemn appeal
to the gods made by Cicero during the con-
spiracy of Catiline. They also guarded the
sacred relics which formed the fatalc pignut
imperii, the pledge granted by fate for the
permanency of the Roman sway, deposited in
the inmost adytum, which no one was per-
mitted to enter save the virgins and the chief
pontifex. What this object was no one
knew ; some supposed that it was the palla-
dium, others the Samothracian gods carried
by Dardanus to Troy, and transported from
thence to Italy by Aeneas, but all agreed in
believing that something of awful sanctity
was here preserved, contained, it was said,
in a small earthen jar closely sealed, while
another exactly similar in form, but empty,
stood by its side. We have seen above that
supreme importance was attached to the
purity of the vestals, and a terrible punish-
ment awaited her who violated the vow of
chastity. According to the law of Numa, she
was simply to be stoned to death, but a more
cruel torture was devised by Tarquinius
Priscus, and inflicted from that time forward.
When condemned by the college of ponti-
fices, she was stripped of her vittae and other
badges of office, was scourged, was attired
ike a corpse, placed in a close litter and
borne through the forum attended by her

weeping kindred, with all the ceremonies ol
a real funeral, to a rising ground called the
Campus Sceleratus, just within the city walls,
close to the Colline gate. There a small
vault underground had been previously pre-
pared, containing a couch, a lamp, and a
table with a little food. The pontifex maxi-
mus, having lifted up his hands to heaven
and uttered a secret prayer, opened the litter,
led forth the culprit, and placing her on the
steps of the ladder which gave access to the
subterranean cell, delivered her over to the
common executioner and his assistants, who
conducted her down, drew up the ladder, and
having filled the pit with earth until the sur-
face was level with the surrounding ground,
left her to perish deprived of all the tributes
of respect usually paid to the spirits of the
departed. In every case the paramour was
publicly scourged to death in the forum.
The honours which the vestals enjoyed were
such as in a great measure to compensate for
their privations. They were maintained at
the public cost, and from sums of money and
land bequeathed from time to time to the
corporation. From the moment of their con-
secration they became as it were the property
of the goddess alone, and were completely
released from all parental sway, without go-
ing through the form of cmancipatio or suf-
fering any capitis deminutio. They had a
right to make a will, and to give evidence in
a court of justice without taking an oath.
From the time of the triumviri each was
preceded by a lictor when she went abroad;
consuls and praetors made way for them,
and lowered their fasces ; even the tribunes
of the plebs respected their holy character,
and if any one passed under their litter he
was put to death. Augustus granted to them
all the rights of matrons who had borne
three children, and assigned them a con-
spicuous place in the theatre, a privilege
which they had enjoyed before at the gladia-
torial shows. Great weight was attached to
their intercession on behalf of those in dan-
ger and difficulty, of which we have a re-
markable example in the entreaties which
they addressed to Sulla on behalf of Julius
Caesar, and if they chanced to meet a crimi-
nal as he was led to punishment, they had a
right to demand his release, provided it could
be proved that the encounter was acci-
dental. Wills, even those of the emperors,
were committed to their charge, for when in
such keeping they were considered invio-
lable ; and in like manner very solemn
treaties, such as that of the triumvirs with
Sextus Fompeius, were placed in their hands.
That they might be honoured in death as in
life, their ashes were interred within the