Vestal Virgin
Vestal Virgin – a priestess of the temple of Vesta, the goddess of the domestic hearth and sacrificial fire.
Vestal Virgins were chosen from girls aged six to ten from noble families. Their duties included maintaining the eternal sacred fire and serving in the temple. Vestal Virgins took a vow of chastity; for violating this vow, they could be buried alive.
The service of a Vestal Virgin lasted thirty years, after which she became free and acquired the right to marry. However, this happened extremely rarely, since there was a belief that marriage to a Vestal Virgin would not bring good fortune. In addition, by marrying, a former Vestal Virgin lost her unique social and property status for a Roman woman and became an ordinary matron dependent on her husband, which, of course, was not advantageous to her.
A Vestal Virgin enjoyed extraordinary honors in Roman society. She freely disposed of her own property, gave testimony in court without taking an oath, and in the street was accompanied by a lictor, a public attendant of high officials who usually walked ahead of them, clearing the crowd. The person of a Vestal Virgin was inviolable: anyone who offended a Vestal Virgin was sentenced to death. If a criminal being led to execution met a Vestal Virgin on the way, his life was spared.
The institution of the Vestal Virgins existed in Rome for eleven centuries, until the fourth century CE (Lisovyi & Reviako, 1997, pp. 51–52).
Reference:
Lisovyi, I. A., & Reviako, K. A. (1997). Antichnyi mir v terminakh, imenakh i nazvaniiakh: Slovar-spravochnik po istorii i kulture Drevnei Gretsii i Rima [The ancient world in terms, names, and titles: A reference dictionary on the history and culture of Ancient Greece and Rome] (2nd ed.). Minsk: Belarus. [in Russian].
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