Here's a job posting from ancient Rome: six women, chosen as young girls, tasked with keeping a single flame alive — and if that flame went out, Rome itself would fall. For over a thousand years, from around 700 BC to 394 AD, the Vestal Virgins guarded the sacred fire of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, in a temple at the heart of the Roman Forum. They were the most powerful women in the ancient world. And the price of that power was their bodies, their freedom, and sometimes their lives.
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Lost & Found·2/3·1′
The place
Roman Forum & Palatine Hill
The Last Vestal Virgin
A thousand years of sacred flame, snuffed out by an emperor's signature
7th century BC - 394 ADRoman Forum & Palatine Hill
Moral of the Story
“Even a thousand years of tradition can be ended with a single signature — and the greatest privileges always come with the greatest costs.”
Characters
T
The Vestal VirginsK
King Numa PompiliusE
Emperor Theodosius IC
Coelia Concordia (last Chief Vestal)E
Emperor DomitianSource
Plutarch, Life of Numa; Livy, Ab Urbe Condita; Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae; Ammianus Marcellinus