Editing Vestal Virgin (section)

=== Selection ===
To obtain entry into the order, a girl had to be free of physical, moral, and mental 'defects'; have two living parents; and be a daughter of a free-born resident of Rome. From at least the mid-Republican era, the {{lang|la|pontifex maximus}} chose Vestals by lot from a group of twenty high-born candidates at a gathering of their families and other Roman citizens.<ref name=Kroppenberg-2010/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 426–427}}

Under the Papian Law of the 3rd century BC, candidates for Vestal priesthoods had to be of [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] birth. Membership was opened to [[plebs|plebeian]]s as it became difficult to find patricians willing to commit their daughters to 30 years as a Vestal, and then ultimately even from the daughters of freemen for the same reason.<ref name=Kroppenberg-2010/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 426–427}}<ref name=Kroppenberg-2010>{{cite journal |first=Inge |last=Kroppenberg |year=2010 |title=Law, religion, and constitution of the Vestal virgins |journal=Law & Literature |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=418–439 |issn=1541-2601 |s2cid=144805147 |doi=10.1525/lal.2010.22.3.418 |via=[[University of Regensburg]] |url=http://www.uni-r.de/Fakultaeten/Jura/kroppenberg/pdf/CV%20und%20Schriftenverzeichnis%20Kroppenberg/LAL2203_03-Vestal_Virgins.pdf |access-date=2011-10-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425081258/http://www.uni-r.de/Fakultaeten/Jura/kroppenberg/pdf/CV%20und%20Schriftenverzeichnis%20Kroppenberg/LAL2203_03-Vestal_Virgins.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-25 }}</ref>

The choosing ceremony was known as a {{lang|la|captio}} (capture). Once a girl was chosen to be a Vestal, the {{lang|la|pontifex}} pointed to her and led her away from her parents with the words, "I take you, {{lang|la|amata}} (beloved), to be a Vestal priestess, who will carry out sacred rites, which it is the law for a Vestal priestess to perform, on behalf of the Roman people, on the same terms as her who was a Vestal 'on the best terms{{'"}} (thus, with all the entitlements of a Vestal). As soon as she entered the atrium of Vesta's temple, she was under the goddess' service and protection.<ref>{{cite book |section=Vestal Virgins |author=Aulus Gellius |author-link=Aulus Gellius |title=Attic Nights |volume=1 |page=12 |via=STOA.org |section-url=http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/wlgr/wlgr-religion408.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203060947/http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/wlgr/wlgr-religion408.shtml |archive-date=2012-12-03 }}</ref>

If a Vestal died before her contracted term ended, potential replacements would be presented in the quarters of the chief Vestal to select the most virtuous. Unlike normal inductees, these candidates did not have to be prepubescent, nor even virgins; they could be young widows or even divorcées, though that was frowned upon and thought unlucky.<ref>Cornell, Tim. [https://www.persee.fr/doc/efr_0000-0000_1981_act_48_1_1357 "Some observations on the {{lang|la|crimen incesti}}"]. In: {{lang|fr|Le délit religieux dans la cité antique. Actes de la table ronde de Rome}} (6–7 April 1978). Rome: {{lang|fr|École Française de Rome}}, 1981. ({{lang|fr|italic=no|Publications de l'École française de Rome}}, 48).</ref> Tacitus recounts how [[Gaius Fonteius Agrippa]] and Domitius Pollio offered their daughters as Vestal candidates in 19 AD to fill such a vacant position. Equally matched, Pollio's daughter was chosen only because Agrippa had been recently divorced. The {{lang|la|pontifex maximus}} ([[Tiberius]]) "consoled" the failed candidate with a dowry of 1&nbsp;million [[sesterces]].<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Tacitus]] |title=[[Annales (Tacitus)|Annales]] |at=ii. 86}}</ref>