Editing Vestal Virgin (section)

===Prosecutions and punishments===
[[File:Alessandro Marchesini - Dedication of a New Vestal Virgin - WGA14054.jpg|thumb|Early 18th-century depiction of the dedication of a Vestal, by [[Alessandro Marchesini]]]]
[[File:Constantin Hölscher - In the Temple of Vesta.jpg|thumb|''In the Temple of Vesta'' by {{Interlanguage link|Constantin Hölscher|lt=|de||WD=}}, 1902)]]
If Vesta's fire went out, Rome was no longer protected. Spontaneous extinction of the sacred flame for no apparent reason might be understood as a [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#prodigium|prodigy]], a warning that the {{lang|la|pax deorum}} ("peace of the gods") was disrupted by some undetected impropriety, unnatural phenomenon or religious offence. Romans had a duty to report any suspected prodigies to the Senate, who in turn consulted the {{lang|la|pontifex maximus}}, the {{lang|la|pontifices}} and the {{lang|la|haruspices}} to determine whether the matter must be tried or dismissed. Expiation of prodigies usually involved a special sacrifice ({{lang|la|[[piaculum]]}}) and the destruction of the "unnatural" object that had caused divine offence.<ref name="persee.fr">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. p. 38. ({{lang|fr|italic=no|Publications de l'École française de Rome}}, 48).</ref>

Extinction of Vesta's 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".<ref>{{cite book |last=Culham |first=Phyllis |editor-last=Flower |editor-first=Harriet I. |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic |edition=2nd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2014 |page=143 |isbn=9781107669420 }}</ref> The sacred fire could then be relit, using the correct rituals and the purest materials. Loss of chastity, however, represented a broken oath. It was permanent, irreversible; no {{lang|la|piaculum}} or expiation could restore it or compensate for its loss.<ref name="persee.fr"/>

A Vestal who committed {{lang|la|incestum}} breached Rome's contract with the gods; she became a contradiction, a visible religious embarrassment.<ref name="Cornell, Tim 1978 pp. 27-37">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. pp. 27-37. ({{lang|fr|italic=no|Publications de l'École française de Rome}}, 48).</ref> By ancient tradition, she must die, but she must seem to do so willingly, and her [[Human sacrifice#Greco-Roman antiquity|blood could not be spilled]]. The city could not seem responsible for her death, and burial of the dead was anyway forbidden within the city's ritual boundary, so she was [[premature burial|immured alive]] in an underground chamber within the city's ritual boundary ({{lang|la|[[pomerium]]}}) in the {{lang|la|Campus Sceleratus}} ("Evil Field") near the [[Porta Collina|Colline Gate]].<ref>Mueller, Hans-Friedrich, ''Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus'', p. 51; Rasmussen, Susanne William, ''Public Portents in Republican Rome,'' L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2003, p. 41.</ref><ref name="Eckstein 2012 214–217">{{Cite journal|last=Eckstein|first=Arthur M.|date=2012|title=Polybius, the Gallic Crisis, and the Ebro Treaty|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/665622|journal=Classical Philology|volume=107|issue=3|pages=214–217|doi=10.1086/665622|jstor=10.1086/665622 |s2cid=162395205 |issn=0009-837X|url-access=subscription}}</ref> That Vesta did not intervene to save her former protege was taken as further divine confirmation of guilt.<ref>Parker, N., Holt, "Why were the Vestals Virgins? Or the Chastity of Women and the safety of the Roman State," ''American Journal of Philology'', 125, (2004) p.586. See also Staples, Ariadne, ''From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion'', Routledge, (1998), p.133</ref>

{{blockquote|When condemned by the college of pontifices, [the Vestal] was stripped of her {{lang|la|[[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 {{lang|la|Campus Sceleratus}} just within the city walls, close to the Colline gate. There a small [[Vault (architecture)|vault]] underground had been previously prepared, containing a couch, a lamp, and a table with a little food. The {{lang|la|pontifex maximus}}, 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 surface 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.<ref>Ramsay, William, ''Vestales'', in Smith, William, in ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'', John Murray, London, 1875, pp. 1189–1191.</ref>}} If discovered, the [[Extramarital sex|paramour]] of a guilty Vestal was publicly beaten to death by the {{lang|la|pontifex maximus}}, in the [[Forum Boarium]] or on the [[Comitium]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Howatson |first=M. C. |title=Oxford Companion to Classical Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-19-866121-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00howa }}</ref>

Trials for Vestal {{lang|la|incestum}} were "extremely rare"; most took place during military or religious crises.<ref>Quotation from Cornell, 1981, p. 27</ref> Some Vestals were probably used as scapegoats; their political alliances and alleged failure to observe oaths and duties were held to account for civil disturbances, wars, famines, plagues and other signs of divine displeasure.<ref name="Eckstein 2012 214–217"/><ref name="Cornell, Tim 1978 pp. 27-37"/> The end of the 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. In 483 BC, during a period of social conflict between patricians and plebeians, the Vestal [[Oppia]], perhaps the earliest of several historic Vestals of [[plebeian]] family, was executed for {{lang|la|incestum}} merely on the basis of various portents, and allegations that she neglected her Vestal duties.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite book |author-link=Livy |author=Livy |title=Ab urbe condita |at=2.42|title-link=Ab urbe condita (book) }}</ref> In 337 BC, Minucia, another possible first [[plebeian]] Vestal, was tried, found guilty of unchastity and buried alive on the strength of her excessive and inappropriate love of dress, and the evidence of a slave.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy08.html |title=History of Rome |at=8.15 |author=Livy |author-link=Livy |publisher=Marquette University |access-date=2012-11-19 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120914151711/http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy08.html |archive-date=2012-09-14 }}</ref>

[[File:Vestal Palatino Inv12491.jpg|thumb|Vestal from the time of [[Hadrian]], fragment of a relief found on the [[Palatine Hill]] ''(British Museum)'']]
In 123 BC the gift of an altar, shrine and couch to the Bona Dea's Aventine temple by the Vestal [[Licinia (died 113 BC)|Licinia]] "without the people's approval" was refused by the [[Roman Senate]].<ref>{{harvnb|Wildfang|2006|pp=92–93}}, citing Cicero, ''De Domo Sua'', 53.136.</ref> In 114 Licinia and two of her colleagues, Vestals [[Aemilia (vestal)|Aemilia]] and [[Marcia (vestal)|Marcia]], were accused of multiple acts of {{lang|la|[[incestum]]}}.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AktQAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Lucius+Cassius%22+%22vestal%22|title=Religions of Rome: Volume 1, A History|first1=Mary|last1=Beard|first2=John|last2=North|first3=Simon|last3=Price|date=9 July 1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780521304016}}</ref> The final accusations were justified by the death, in 114 BC, of Helvia, a virgin girl of equestrian family, killed by lightning while on horseback. The manner of her death was interpreted as a [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#prodigy|prodigy]], proof of [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#castus, castitas|inchastity]] by the three accused.<ref>Erdkamp, Paul, "War, Vestal Virgins, and Live Burials in the Roman Republic", in M. Dillon and C. Matthews, eds., ''Religion and Classical Warfare. II: The Roman Republic'', Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2020, p.9</ref> Aemilia, who had supposedly incited the two others to follow her example, was condemned outright and put to death.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VAQkDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Lucius+Cassius%22+%22vestal%22&pg=PP44|title=Roman Women: The Women who influenced the History of Rome|first=Paul|last=Chrystal|date=17 May 2017|publisher=Fonthill Media|via=Google Books}}</ref> Marcia, who was accused of only one offence, and Licinia, who was accused of many, were at first acquitted by the [[pontifex|pontifices]], but were retried by [[Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla]] (consul 127), and condemned to death in 113.<ref>Wildfang, Robin Lorsch, [https://books.google.com/books?id=eYetrQctq04C&pg=PA154 ''Rome's vestal virgins: a study of Rome's vestal priestesses in the late Republic and early Empire''], Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2007, p. 93ff.</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2esYJJUETiYC&q=%22Lucius+Cassius%22+%22vestal%22&pg=PA206|title=A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women|first1=Marjorie|last1=Lightman|first2=Benjamin|last2=Lightman|date=17 December 2018|publisher=Infobase Publishing|via=Google Books|isbn=9781438107943}}</ref> The prosecution offered two [[Sibylline books|Sibylline prophecies]] in support of the final verdicts. Of the three Vestals executed for {{lang|la|incestum}} between the [[first Punic War]] (216) and the end of the Republic (113–111), 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 or immurement in the {{lang|la|[[Forum Boarium]]}} of a Greek man and woman, and a [[Gaul]]ish man and woman, possibly to avert divine outrage at the ritual killing of the Vestal priestesses involved. According to Erdkamp, this may have also been intended to restore divine support for Rome's success on the battlefield, evidenced by later successful auguries.<ref>Erdkamp, 2020, pp. 22-25</ref> The initial charges against the Vestals concerned were almost certainly trumped up, and may have been politically motivated.<ref>Phyllis Cunham, in Harriet Flower (ed), [https://books.google.com/books?id=i1rQqJo_flwC&pg=PA155&lpg=PA155 ''The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic''], Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 155. The accusations against Licinia included fraternal incest. She was a contemporary and possible political ally of the [[Gracchi]] brothers. In 123&nbsp;BC the [[Roman Senate]] had annulled her attempted rededication of [[Bona Dea]]'s [[Aventine Hill|Aventine]] Temple as illegal and "against the will of the people". She may have fallen victim to the factional politics of the times.</ref><ref>Broughton, vol. I, p. 534.</ref>

Pliny the Younger believed that Cornelia, a {{lang|la|Virgo Maxima}} buried alive on the orders of emperor [[Domitian]], may have been an innocent victim. He describes how she sought to keep her dignity intact when she descended into the chamber:<ref>Pliny the Younger, [https://www.bartleby.com/9/4/1043.html ''Letters. XLIII. To Cornelius Minicianus'']
The Harvard Classics</ref>

[[File:Cornelia, the Vestal Virgin, entombed alive surrounded by bo Wellcome V0041753.jpg|thumb|left|Cornelia entombed alive]]
{{blockquote|As they were leading her to the place of execution, she called upon Vesta, and the rest of the gods, to attest her innocence; and, amongst other exclamations, frequently cried out, "Is it possible that Cæsar can think me polluted, under the influence of whose sacred functions he has conquered and triumphed?" Whether she said this in flattery or derision; whether it proceeded from a consciousness of her innocence or contempt of the emperor, is uncertain; but she continued exclaiming in this manner, til she came to the place of execution, to which she was led, whether innocent or guilty I cannot say, at all events with every appearance and demonstration of innocence. As she was being lowered down into the subterranean vault, her robe happening to catch upon something in the descent, she turned round and disengaged it, when, the executioner offering his assistance, she drew herself back with horror, refusing to be so much as touched by him, as though it were a defilement to her pure and unspotted chastity: still preserving the appearance of sanctity up to the last moment; and, among all the other instances of her modesty,
"She took great care to fall with decency." [The quotation is from [[Euripides]], ''[[Hecuba]]''.]}}

[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] claims that long before Rome's foundation, Vestals at ancient [[Alba Longa]] were whipped and "put to death" for breaking their vows of celibacy, and that their offspring were to be thrown into the river.<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1D*.html ''The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus''], Loeb Classical Library, 1937, Book 1, 78.</ref> According to Livy, Rhea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus, had been forced to become a Vestal Virgin, and was chained and imprisoned when she gave birth.<ref>{{cite book |author=Livy |author-link=Livy |title=History of Rome |volume=1 |translator1=Baker |year=1844 |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Brothers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BdsLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA22 |page=22}}</ref> Dionysius also writes that the Roman king [[Tarquinius Priscus]] instituted live burial as a punishment for Vestal unchastity, and inflicted it on the Vestal Pinaria;<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1D*.html ''The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus''], Loeb Classical Library, 1937, Book 3, 68.</ref> and that whipping with rods sometimes preceded the [[Immurement|immuration]], and that this was done to Urbinia in 471 BCE, in a time of pestilence and plebeian unrest.<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/9B*.html ''The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus''], Loeb Classical Library, 1937, Book 1X, 40–41.</ref>

Postumia, though innocent according to Livy,<ref>{{cite book |url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy04.html |title=History of Rome |volume=4 |at=4.44 |author=Livy |author-link=Livy |publisher=Marquette University |access-date=2012-11-19 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915013420/http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy04.html |archive-date=2012-09-15 }}</ref> was suspected and tried for unchastity on grounds of her immodest attire and over-familiar manner. Some Vestals were acquitted. Some cleared themselves through ordeals or miraculous deeds; in a celebrated case during the mid-Republic, the Vestal [[Tuccia]], accused of unchastity, carried water in a [[wikt:sieve|sieve]] to prove her innocence; Livy's epitomator (Per. 20) claims that she was condemned nevertheless but in all other sources she was acquitted.<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. p. 28. ({{lang|fr|italic=no|Publications de l'École française de Rome}}, 48).</ref>  [[Image:Casa-vestali.png|thumb|A reconstruction of the House of the Vestals by [[Christian Hülsen]] (1905)]]