Page 89 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

FORUM  87

This responsibility was originally
entrusted to the daughters of
the king, but it then passed to
the Vestals, the only group of
women priests in Rome. It was
no easy task, as the flame was
easily blown out. Any Vestal
who allowed the flame to die
was whipped by the high
priest (Pontifex Maximus)
and dismissed.
The girls, who had to belong
to noble families, were selected
when they were between 6 and
10 years old. They served for
30 years: the first ten were spent
learning their duties, the next
ten performing them and the
final ten teaching novices.
They enjoyed high status and Central courtyard of the House of the Vestal Virgins
financial security, but had to 0 House of the
remain virgins. The penalty for q Temple of
transgressing was to be buried Vestal Virgins Antoninus and
alive, although only ten See Visitors’ Checklist, p85. Faustina
Vestals are recorded as ever
having suffered this fate. As soon as a girl became a See Visitors’ Checklist, p85.
The men involved were Vestal, she came to live in
whipped to death. When the House of the Vestal One of the Forum’s oddest
Vestals retired, they were Virgins. This was once an sights is the Baroque facade
free to live the rest of their enormous complex with of the church of San Lorenzo
lives as ordinary citizens. If about 50 rooms on three in Miranda rising above the
they wished, they could stories. The only remains porch of a Roman temple.
marry, but few ever did. today are some of the First dedicated in AD 141
Another of the Vestals’ rooms around the central by Emperor Antoninus Pius
duties was to guard the courtyard. This space is to his late wife Faustina, the
Palladium, a sacred perhaps the most evoc­ temple was rededicated to
statue of the goddess Honorary statue ative part of the Forum. them both on the death
Pallas Athenae. The of a Vestal Virgin Overlooking ponds of of the emperor. In the 11th
irreverent Emperor water lilies and goldfish century it was converted
Heliogabalus burgled the is a row of eroded, and mostly into a church because it was
temple in the 3rd century AD. headless, statues of senior believed that San Lorenzo
He thought he had succeeded Vestals, dating from the 3rd, and (St. Lawrence) had been
in stealing the Palladium, but 4th centuries AD. The better­ condemned to death there.
the Vestals had been warned of preserved examples are in the The current church dates
his intention and had replaced Museo Nazionale Romano (see from 1601.
it with a replica. p165). On one of the pedes tals
the inscription has been
removed because the disgraced
Vestal in question may have
been a certain Claudia, known
to have betrayed the cult by
converting to Christianity.
Though many of the rooms
surrounding the courtyard are
well preserved – some even
retain flights of steps – entry is
not allowed. If you peek into
the series of rooms along the
south side, however, you might
be able to see the remains of
a mill, used for grinding the
grain with which the Vestals
made a special sacrificial cake.
Restored section of Temple of Vesta The bakery was next door. Temple of Antoninus and Faustina

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