Vestalia Reborn

[M. Porcius Cato]

Full story HERE. Interesting explanation, too, about why the Vestals were buried alive.

[ASCLEPIADES]

Full story HERE. Interesting explanation, too, about why the Vestals were buried alive.

Quote: "The penalty for Vestal Virgins who actually lost their virginity was death. Since tradition dictated that the blood of Vestal Virgins could not be shed, transgressors were buried alive."

 

Interesting indeed, as it doesn't add up; here comes W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, pg 1190:

 

"We have seen above that supreme importance was attached to the purity of the Vestals, and a terrible punishment awaited her who violated the vow of chastity. According to the law of Numa she was simply to be stoned to death, but a more cruel torture was devised by Tarquinius Prisons and in

[Ingsoc]

Another explanation that I've read is that supposedly this was the final test to the Vestal Virgin innocent, if a mistake was made and she was innocent then she would have been rescued by Vesta (needless to say that it's never happend...)

 

"We have seen above that supreme importance was attached to the purity of the Vestals, and a terrible punishment awaited her who violated the vow of chastity. According to the law of Numa she was simply to be stoned to death, but a more cruel torture was devised by Tarquinius Prisons and in

[ASCLEPIADES]

Another explanation that I've read is that supposedly this was the final test to the Vestal Virgin innocent, if a mistake was made and she was innocent then she would have been rescued by Vesta (needless to say that it's never happend...)

Both explanations sound a bite suspicious to me, because even if both are commonplace in anthropology (ie, Mongols killed defeated leaders without shedding their blood, and the innocence test was regular practice during European witch hunting) I'm not aware of any primary source reference to them regarding the vestales.

[Ingsoc]

Both explanations sound a bite suspicious to me, because even if both are commonplace in anthropology (ie, Mongols killed defeated leaders without shedding their blood, and the innocence test was regular practice during European witch hunting) I'm not aware of any primary source reference to them regarding the vestales.

 

Well no primary source explicit say this, however from Plutarchus description of the burial (Roman Questions, 96) it's clear that the Romans regards the Vestal Virgins with the utmost holiness. It's only logical to assume an innocent test was made in order to make sure that the court didn't made a mistake and shed the blood of an holy woman for nothing.