From the early days of the Roman Republic, if not from the time of the Roman Kingdom, the House of the Vestals served as the residence of Rome’s most important priesthood. It was here that the city’s six vestal virgins lived, priestesses whose task it was to make sure the sacred hearth in the Temple of Vesta kept on burning.
Should the fire go out, it would spell disaster for the state, at least according to Roman superstition. Just as disastrous as the fire going out would be if one of the priestesses attending it were no longer thought to be pure or virginal: a transgression which, if believed to be true, resulted in the offender being walled up alive and her co-culprit flogged to death.
To balance out the menace of meeting such a horrendous end, the vestals were afforded several privileges for their position. For a start, the young woman was no longer under patria potestas (the power of her father), which, in a legal sense, all other unmarried women were. True, the paternal role was instead taken up by the pontifex maximus but there were other perks too: she could ride around the city in a carpentum (carriage), had seats reserved for her at the games, and enjoyed burial rights (outside a walled cave if she was lucky).
She also enjoyed considerable prestige and, strangely enough, the power to save life. For if a vestal encountered a condemned man on the day of his execution, it was decreed that she had the power to pardon him.
The oldest surviving part of the House of the Vestals seems to date from the Archaic Period, as evidenced by the fact it belies the Imperial ground level by a metre. When he became pontifex maximus in 12 BC, Augustus took up residence on the Palatine and left the Regia (originally the palace of Rome’s Etruscan kings and then the house of the pontifex maximus) for the vestals. They incorporated this into their atrium but didn’t have long to enjoy it: the complex was devastated by the Great Fire of 64 that raged during the reign of Nero.
Rebuilt under Domitian, further restorations were carried out under Trajan and Septimius Severus. But after Theodosius outlawed pagan cults in 391 AD, the time of the vestals was limited, and before the century was out the House of the Vestals had become a residence of city and papal officials.
What remains of the House of the Vestals
As you can still see, the House of the Vestals was part of a unified complex connected to the Temple of Vesta and the Regia. After all, it made sense that those whose job it was to keep the sacred hearth burning didn’t live too far away from work. Because of its proximity to the Regia (originally the palace of Rome’s Etruscan kings) the original hearth had probably been that of the king. The Regia’s incorporation into the complex, however, resulted in its transformation to become Rome’s communal hearth.
Today’s entrance to the House of the Vestals lies to the east of the temple. It was a three-storey structure comprising 50 rooms—the others were presumably for the complex’s service staff. At the east of the complex was an open vault in which stood a statue of Numa Pompilius: the founder of the cult. The statues that line its current courtyard are all originals discovered on site, as are the pedestals upon which they stand. However, because they were discovered in a pile, nobody knows whether they correspond to the correct original order.
The rooms on the southern side of the atrium are the best preserved of the complex. Archaeologists have identified amongst its rooms a bakery, a mill (with a grindstone) and what appears to be a kitchen. You can also make out the part of a stairway that presumably led to the vestal’s private quarters. The parts of the atrium built in cappellaccio are the ones that date from the Archaic Period.
