Vestal Virgin
As a Vestal Virgin you would be one of only six women entrusted with keeping Rome’s sacred fire alive – honoured above almost anyone in the city, and watched more closely than anyone too.
Chosen as a girl
Vesta was the goddess of the hearth, and her round temple in the Roman Forum held a fire that was believed to guarantee the city’s survival. It was tended by a college of six priestesses. Candidates were girls aged 6 to 10 from free, respectable families with both parents living, chosen by the chief priest, the pontifex maximus.
The commitment lasted 30 years: ten years learning the rites, ten performing them and ten teaching newcomers. After that a Vestal could leave and even marry, though ancient writers say few did.
Fire, water and bread
The work was practical as well as sacred. Vestals kept the flame burning day and night, fetched water from a sacred spring because piped water was not allowed for some rites, and prepared mola salsa, a salted flour used in public sacrifices. They also kept important documents, including wills; according to ancient historians, both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony deposited theirs with the Vestals.
Their privileges were unique for Roman women. They were freed from a father’s legal authority, could manage their own property, rode in carriages in the city, had reserved seats at games, and were preceded by a lictor. If a condemned man met a Vestal by chance on the way to execution, he could be pardoned.
The price of failure
Letting the fire go out meant a flogging. Breaking the vow of chastity – or being accused of it, often in times of crisis when the gods seemed angry – meant being buried alive in a small underground chamber near the Colline Gate, with a little bread, water and a lamp. Such cases were rare but real. The order lasted for over a thousand years until Emperor Theodosius I suppressed it around 394 CE.
