Female Magistrates in Broughton's

[Nephele]

While referencing my two-volume set of Broughton's Magistrates of the Roman Republic, I decided to compile a list of all the female magistrates that I could find mentioned therein. The list evolved into the following article.

 

Considering that there are nearly three thousand male magistrates who receive a mention in Broughton's Magistrates of the Roman Republic, the scant two dozen female magistrates I found would not make much of an impressive list -- except for the fact that their presence at all in a vastly male-dominated field ought to be impressive in itself.

 

While men by and large ruled the political arena of ancient Rome, these women did manage to attain some power through religious office. We're all familiar with the Vestal Virgins, and the special privileges conferred upon them. However, these privileges came with a heavy price -- made shockingly apparent by the fact that, in almost every instance in which a Vestal is mentioned in the historical records compiled by Broughton for his annual magisterial lists, it was a record of a Vestal being condemned to death for some professional or personal transgression.

 

The most frequent indictment of a Vestal was that of "incest" -- with, in the case of a Vestal, "incest" being defined by the State as any sexual activity between the Vestal and another member of the State, since each Vestal was viewed as being a Daughter of the State.

 

Thus we find in Broughton's the earliest mention (for the era of the Republic) of an execution of a Vestal in the year 483 BCE, when either an Oppia or an Opimia (there is some dispute among historians as to her name, although Livy calls her Oppia) was convicted of "misconduct." Those who followed Oppia's fate were Orbinia in 472 BCE (put to death for misconduct), Minucia in 337 BCE (put to death for misconduct), and Caparronia in 226 BCE (this one thwarted her accusers by choosing to hang herself before they had a chance to execute her for "incest").

 

In 114 BCE three Vestals (scandalously representing 50% of the entire group, since there were only six Vestals perpetually in office throughout the time of the Republic) were all accused of "incest" and tried before the Pontifices. Of the three, only Aemilia was condemned to death at the time, with the other two, Licinia and Marcia, being acquitted. However, the following year, a Tribune of the Plebs named Sextus Peducaeus decided that the two Vestals who had escaped execution deserved to suffer the same fate as their sister Vestal, and so he carried a plebiscite to appoint Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla (who had been Consul in 127 BCE) as special inquisitor into the case of the accused Vestals. And so Licinia and Marcia were subsequently condemned and put to death -- although not without suspicion of political bias in the decision to execute them.

 

The unfortunate Vestal Licinia had previously had a run-in with the Pontifices. In the year 123 BCE, Licinia had taken it upon herself to dedicate an ara (altar), aedicula (small temple), and pulvinar (a couch covered with cushions for the images of the gods) below the rock on the Aventine, which (in the words of Broughton, via Cicero) "were disallowed by the Pontifices on the ground that the dedication had not been ordained by the people."

 

One female magistrate who was not a Vestal yet who also is noted in history solely for her misdeeds, was the Flaminica Martialis named Publilia. A Flaminica Martialis was the wife of the Flamen Martialis, the chief priest serving the god Mars, and who shared some duties with her husband. In the year 154 BCE, Publilia was accused of poisoning her husband, Lucius Postumius Albinus -- who was not only Flamen Martialis (a life-long priestly office), but also Consul.

 

We can only guess as to what may have led Publilia to such an act of desperation. Because divorce was not permitted to a Flamen Martialis and his wife, perhaps Publilia may have seen no other way out of her marriage. Regardless (as Livy relates in the Periochae, 48.12-13), Publilia was tried for murder along with a noblewoman named Licinia, who was also accused of poisoning her husband. Following their hearing, both appeared as though they would be let off relatively lightly, as the Praetor assigned real estate as their bail. However, their relatives thought otherwise and, as a result of their respective families' decision (most likely under the old law of patria potestas whereby the male head of the family exercised absolute life and death control over family members) both Publilia and the noblewoman Licinia were executed.

 

Now we move on to those female magistrates mentioned in Broughton's who, while accused of transgressions, were fortunate enough to have received an acquittal which stuck.

 

We have an Aemilia, who was charged with allowing the sacred fire of the goddess Vesta to die out -- a very serious offense for a Vestal. While the precise date and identification of this Vestal remain uncertain, the story goes that the sacred flame was somehow miraculously re-lit, thus sparing Aemilia from punishment. In 420 BCE a Vestal named Postumia was tried for misconduct, but acquitted. Then, in 230 BCE, another miraculous event spared yet another Vestal: Tuccia, who was condemned, but managed to prove her innocence by completing the impossible task of carrying water in a sieve, thus showing that the gods were on her side.

 

In 73 BCE a Vestal named Fabia was accused by Clodius of "incest" with Catiline. This Fabia also happened to be the sister-in-law of Cicero and, even though she was acquitted by Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi, her brother-in-law Cicero nevertheless brought the entire matter up again a decade later in his speech In Toga Candida, in which Cicero included the alleged indiscretion between Catiline and Fabia along with other, enumerated crimes of Catiline.

 

Around the same time that Fabia had been accused, another Vestal named Licinia (whom I shall designate as "Licinia 2" to distinguish her from the 2nd century BCE Vestal also named Licinia) was also accused by a certain Plotius of "incest" with the general Marcus Licinius Crassus -- but she was fortunately also defended by Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi, and acquitted. Licinia 2 continued happily in her office as Vestal, as a few years later in 69 BCE she is mentioned as having attended the pontifical dinner for the inauguration of Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Niger as Flamen Martialis. A few years after this, in 63 BCE, Licinia 2 was able to use her influence as a Vestal to aide the candidacy of her relative Gaius Licinius Murena for the consulship.

 

Among other female magistrates who received a brief mention in Broughton's, are Valeria in 488 BCE, notable for having been the first priestess of Fortuna Muliebris. For the year 216 BCE, two Vestals named Floronia and Opimia receive only a passing mention.

 

If individual Vestals weren't being noted by the historians for their transgressions (either actual or fabricated), then they were noted for their familial relationships, depending on what their famous (or infamous) male relative might have been up to at the time.

 

The Vestal Claudia receives mention as a pawn in her father's scheme of self-aggrandisement. In the year 143 BCE, the Consul Appius Claudius Pulcher, after having defeated the Salassi (on his second attempt) and having been refused a triumph by the Senate, chose to celebrate one anyway. He craftily got around the veto by having his Vestal daughter ride with him. (Presumably, the dignity of the presence of the Vestal squelched any reprimands from the Senate).

 

Yet another Vestal receiving mention, if only in conjunction with male relatives, was Fonteia. She was a daughter of the Legate Fonteius (who served under Quintus Servilius at Asculum and was killed there around the year 91 BCE), and she was also the sister of Marcus Fonteius who was put on trial around 69 BCE.

 

In the year 69 BCE, a Flamen Martialis, named Publicia, attended the pontifical dinner for the inauguration of Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Niger as Flamen Martialis (presumably this was her husband). This is the same inaugural dinner that was attended by the Vestal Licinia 2, and three other noted Vestals: Arruntia, Perpennia, and Popillia.

 

Perhaps it is fitting to wind up this compilation of female magistrates with a Vestal who may have been one of the oldest living female magistrates. Occia, believed to have been a Vestalis Maxima (Chief Vestal), is recorded by Tacitus to have been a Vestal Virgin for fifty-seven years before her death in the year 19 C.E. One can only wonder at the history, secrets, scandals, and hidden longings in the House of the Vestals, which this venerable lady must have been privy to over all those years.

 

-- Nephele

[ASCLEPIADES]

While referencing my two-volume set of Broughton's Magistrates of the Roman Republic, I decided to compile a list of all the female magistrates that I could find mentioned therein. The list evolved into the following article.

-- Nephele

That

[Nephele]

That

[ASCLEPIADES]

Apparently the Broughton's list lacks the name of another vestal indicted during the Republican period, Sextilia at CDLXXXI AUC (273 BC):

(T. Livius, Periochae, Ex Liber XIV, Ch. VII):

 

"Sextilia, virgo Vestalis, damnata incesti viva defossa est.

The Vestal virgin Sextilia was condemned for adultery and buried alive."

 

This is also mentioned by Paulus Orossius (Liber IV, Ch. II, Sec. VIII):

"Tunc quoque apud Romanos Sextilia uirgo Vestalis conuicta damnataque incesti ad portam Collinam uiua defossa est."

[Nephele]

Apparently the Broughton's list lacks the name of another vestal indicted during the Republican period, Sextilia at CDLXXXI AUC (273 BC):

(T. Livius, Periochae, Ex Liber XIV, Ch. VII):

 

"Sextilia, virgo Vestalis, damnata incesti viva defossa est.

The Vestal virgin Sextilia was condemned for adultery and buried alive."

 

This is also mentioned by Paulus Orossius (Liber IV, Ch. II, Sec. VIII):

"Tunc quoque apud Romanos Sextilia uirgo Vestalis conuicta damnataque incesti ad portam Collinam uiua defossa est."

 

Good catch! Actually, I somehow missed that one, as she is included in Broughton's. All that Broughton says about her is that she was "put to death for impurity" in 273 BCE. And (perhaps unsurprisingly) she was a member of a plebeian gens.

 

-- Nephele

[Ursus]

Interesting reading.

 

Sometimes I do wonder what the authorities would have done had they discovered the Vestals in bed with each other.

[Nephele]

Interesting reading.

 

Thanks!

 

Sometimes I do wonder what the authorities would have done had they discovered the Vestals in bed with each other.

 

Pontifices or not, they're still men. They probably would've found it hawt.

 

-- Nephele

[ASCLEPIADES]

I found another two convicted vestals mentioned by Livius, apparently quoted from Q. Fabius Pictor.

 

Do you remember DXXXVIII AUC (216 BC)? That bad year of Cannae plus a couple of added disasters?

Yes, you're right... the vestals were to blame for!

Right again! The convicted were plebs.

But that wasn't enough... (Ab Urbe Condita, Liber XXII, Ch. LVII:

 

"For, over and above these serious disasters, considerable alarm was created by portents which occurred. Two Vestal virgins, Opimia ("2") and Floronia, were found guilty of unchastity. One was buried alive, as is the custom, at the Colline Gate, the other committed suicide. L. Cantilius, one of the pontifical secretaries, now called "minor pontiffs," who had been guilty with Floronia, was scourged in the Comitium by the Pontifex Maximus so severely that he died under it. This act of wickedness, coming as it did amongst so many calamities, was, as often happens, regarded as a portent, and the decemvirs were ordered to consult the Sacred Books. Q. Fabius Pictor was sent to consult the oracle of Delphi as to what forms of prayer and supplication they were to use to propitiate the gods, and what was to be the end of all these terrible disasters. Meanwhile, in obedience to the Books of Destiny, some strange and unusual sacrifices were made, human sacrifices amongst them. A Gaulish man and a Gaulish woman and a Greek man and a Greek woman were buried alive under the Forum Boarium. They were lowered into a stone vault, which had on a previous occasion also been polluted by human victims, a practice most repulsive to Roman feelings.

When the gods were believed to be duly propitiated, M. Claudius Marcellus sent from Ostia 1500 men..."

 

Compare it with M. Plutarchus, Vitae Marcellus, Ch. III, sec. III-IV:

 

"Their alarm was also shown by ... the extraordinary sacrifices which they made to the gods. For though they have no barbarous or unnatural practices, but cherish towards their deities those mild and reverent sentiments which especially characterize Greek thought, at the time when this war burst upon them they were constrained to obey certain oracular commands from the Sibylline books, and to bury alive two Greeks, a man and a woman, and likewise two Gauls, in the place called the "forum boarium", or cattle-market; and in memory of these victims, they still to this day(late I Century AD), in the month of November, perform mysterious and secret ceremonies."

Edited October 7, 2007 by ASCLEPIADES

[Nephele]

I found another two convicted vestals mentioned by Livius, apparently quoted from Q. Fabius Pictor.

 

Aha! These are the two Vestals (Floronia and Opimia) I noted in my article who received only a passing mention by Broughton, on his magisterial list for the year 216 BCE. But Broughton does cite Livy (22.57.2-3) as a reference, along with a few other references.

 

Are you accessing M

[ASCLEPIADES]

Are you accessing M

[M. Porcius Cato]

Who was the first plebeian Vestal? How much did they grow in proportion over time?

[Nephele]

Who was the first plebeian Vestal? How much did they grow in proportion over time?

 

Good questions! Unfortunately, sources don't seem to identify who the first plebeian Vestal may have been, as Vestals were mostly only noted in history when accused of the crime of incestum, tried, and either acquitted or condemned to death.

 

The earliest date for a possible identified plebeian Vestal might be 483 BCE, being the year of the first immolation of a Vestal during the time of the early Republic. That Vestal has been variously identified as being named Oppia, Opimia, Pompilia, or Popillia, but Robin Lorsch Wildfang (the author I mentioned earlier in this thread) states that scholars have generally accepted the name "Oppia" for this particular Vestal.

 

Tying this into the political dynamics of the time, Wildfang writes:

 

Such a [plebeian] background raises the possibility that a very real political motivation lay behind Oppia's accusation (or, equally possibly, that our sources wished to imply this possibility). Rome was at this time in a state of political unrest over the question of agricultural reform with the patricians taking one side and the plebeians the other. The Pontifices were by definition patrician and as such would most probably have been in the camp of those who supported the status quo and viewed the plebeians' unrest as a worrying development that threatened the very fabric of the state and its continued existence. In light of this, Oppia's immolation takes on an added significance and can be seen in part as the patrician Pontifices' conscious or unconscious reaction to plebeian unrest, one that presumably was meant to send a warning to the plebs of the dangers inherent in overstepping their traditional boundaries.

 

Again, it would be difficult to tell how the plebeian Vestals may have grown in proportion over time, since individual Vestals were rarely mentioned in historical records. But it appears that the patricians may have had the edge in having their daughters selected over plebeians, due to the criteria in choosing young Vestal candidates. Not only did the girls have to be virgins, they had to have had parents who had never engaged in any business which the Romans termed sordidum. As explained by Wildfang: "This term has a variety of meanings ranging from simply filthy or dirty to common or of low origin to dishonourable."

 

It may be that patricians were perceived as less likely to be engaged in sordid occupations than were the plebeians, thereby making patrician daughters more qualified for Vestal selection. Until, of course, the plebeians also became eligible for magisterial office, I imagine, and families such as the Licinii rose up the social ladder from whatever "sordid" plebeian occupations (tradesmen?) in which they may have previously engaged. It's interesting to note that there has been more than one Vestal named "Licinia" mentioned in the records.

 

-- Nephele

[Pompieus]

A horrible aspect of of the accusations of vestals (considering the penalty) is that at least some of them may have been politically motivated; that is they were attacks on prominent male relatives. Munzer suggests in Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families that the trial of Licinia in 115 may have been an attack on her father C Licinius Crassus who had tried to transfer the election of priests to the tribal assembly as tribune in 145. He also discusses the three times the fire went out.

 

I was under the impression that vestals retired after serving the godess for 30 years - not so for Occia?

[Nephele]

I was under the impression that vestals retired after serving the godess for 30 years - not so for Occia?

 

No, I don't believe that retirement was ever compulsory. Although 30 years was the "contract period" so to speak, apparently some Vestals chose to remain Vestals their entire lifetime.

 

-- Nephele