CASA DELLE VESTALI
Temple
2024
Recommended
•
2024
A house of the vestals behind the Reggia in Rome.
Just behind the Reggia, the house of the vestals hosted on two floors the priestesses who devoted 30 years of their life to watch the sacred fire, symbol of the eternity of the city. Its construction would have been wanted by Numa Pompilius. The vast building, giving on court, had in the center two basins surrounded by statues of the most famous vestals dating from the IIIth century. The house of the vestals formed, with the temple of the vestals, the complex of theatrium vestae.
We still distinguish a main room surrounded by 6 other small rooms which could be the rooms of the vestals. All coming from prestigious families, they were between 4 and 10 to enjoy this title and they were recruited very young, between 6 and 10 years. They had to take a vow of chastity and any failure was heavily punished: the guilty one was buried alive and her lover whipped to death! The whip did not spare the poor vestal who inadvertently let the sacred fire go out. The life of the vestals was a source of honor and glory in the whole city. They were considered high public figures, were not subject to the authority of their father and enjoyed a certain financial wealth. Moreover, the condemned to death who crossed a vestal on the way to the scaffold were pardoned! The structure of the house of the vestals as we see it today comes from its last restoration carried out by the wife of Settimio Severo, after the great fire of 191.Advertising
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