AO 4:01, Jan/Feb 2001 Chaste keepers of the flame In the waning
years of the first century A.D., one of the six Vestal virgins
who guarded Romes sacred flame was accused of breaking her vow
of chastity. Sentenced to death by the emperor Domitian (8196
A.D.), she was dragged to an underground chamber just inside the
city walls and buried alive. Her alleged lovers were hung upon
forked sticks and beaten to death in the Forum. Soon after the
executions, the author and lawyer Pliny the Younger (61112 A.D.)
wrote to his friend Cornelius Minicianus that the accused
Vestal, a senior priestess named Cornelia, was probably innocent
(Epistle 4.11). She had been executed merely because the emperor
wished to demonstrate his rigorous justice, however tyrannical.
Punishing a Vestal signaled that he would maintain the purity
and prosperity of Rome.