Author: * Virgo Vestalis Cornelius -
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Date: Oct 4, 2005 - 09:55
Vesta by Gellius
From Aulus Gellius, two passages deal with Vesta and the Vestal Virgins: 14.7.7 about the Temple of Vesta and 1.12.9;14;19 about the Vestal Virgins. First I will quote and translate the passage about the Temple and then the passage about the Virgins.
Gel. 14.7.7:
(Varro) id quoque scriptum reliquit non omnes aedes sacras templa esse, ac ne aedem quidem Vestae templum esse.
translation (by Virgo Vestalis Cornelius):
'(Varro) also left this in writing, that not all holy dwellings are temples, and that the dwelling of Vesta is also not a temple.'
Gel. 1.12.9;14;19:
Virgo.....Vestalis, simul est capta atque in atrium Vestae deducta et pontificibus tradita est, eo statim tempore sine emancipatione ac sine capitis minutione e patris potestate exit et ius testamenti faciundi adipiscitur.
In libro primo Fabii Pictoris, quae verba pontificem maximum dicere oporteat, cum virginem capiat, scriptum est. Ea verba sunt: 'sacerdotem Vestalem, quae sacra faciat, quae ius siet sacerdotem Vestalem facere pro populo Romano Quiritibus, uti quae optima lege fuit, ita te, Amata, capio.'
'Amata' inter capiendum a pontifice maximo appellatur, quoniam, quae prima capta est, hoc fuisse nomen traditum est.
translation (by Virgo Vestalis Cornelius):
'As soon as the Vestal Virgin is taken and brought over to the hall of Vesta and handed over to the pontifices, right at that moment she steps out of the power of her father(1) without ceremony of being set free and without losing her freedom and she gets the right to make a will.
In the first book of Fabius Pictor, it is written which words the pontifex maximus should say, when he takes on a virgin. These words are: 'As a priestess of Vesta, whose task it is to carry out holy rites, of which it is rightly that a priestess of Vesta carries them out to serve the Roman people, the Quirites, as the very best which has existed by law, thus, Beloved, I take you on.'
'Beloved' she is called by the pontifex maximus during the ceremony of taking on, because it is handed down that this is her name as soon as she has been taken on.'
Notes:
(1)See for the fatherly power or 'patria potestas': Patria Potestas, by Max Dashu, 2004.
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