Vestal Virgins

Reading notes

• The Annals §1.8 Vestal virgins

  Priestesses of Vesta, guardians of the sacred hearth and of citizens' wills, including Augustus's.

• The Annals §2.86 the rites of Vesta

  The order of Vesta's priestesses.

• The Annals §4.16 the seats of the Vestals

  The Vestal Virgins, priestesses of Vesta, who held places of honor at the games; Livia was now allowed to sit among them.

• The Histories §3.82 Vestal Virgins

  The six priestesses of Vesta who tended the sacred hearth-fire of Rome; their inviolable standing made them fit bearers of Vitellius's last appeal for a truce.