The „crimen incesti“ of the Vestal Virgins and the Prodigious Pestilence

The „crimen incesti“ of the Vestal Virgins
and the Prodigious Pestilence
KATARIINA MUSTAKALLIO
The texts of ancient writers have preserved mentions of thirteen incestum
cases of Vestal Virgins. They tell us that the unchastity of a Vestal
was usually discovered by prodigies, which were interpreted as signs of the
divine anger. According to Tim Cornell and Augusto Fraschetti, for example,
it is no coincidence that cases of incestum were discovered in Rome
at times of acute crisis.1 In recent years special attention has been paid to
two cases of incesti, the case of Opimia after the crushing defeat at Cannae
in 216, and the case of Aemilia, Licinia and Marcia in 1 14-113 B.C.2 They
occurred, as we know, at a time of extreme religious hysteria. a.nd political
crisis. These were exceptiona.l cases: the punishing of Vestals was followed
by human sa.crifices.
The trial of crimen incesti of a. Vesta.l Virgin does not fit into the
common fra.mework of Roman criminal law. Instea.d, the trial a.nd punishment
have been seen as an investigation and expiation of a prodigium. Tim
Cornell, however, a.rgues tha.t the trial of an unehaste Vesta.l was a. ma.nifestation
of the disciplina.ry powers which the pontifex maximus exercised
over members of the priestly colleges.3 In a.ddition, Cornell stresses tha.t
the crimen incesti differed from other kinds of religious offences committed
by priests and priestesses in tha.t the Vesta.ls‘ crimes could not be expia.ted.
1 T. Cornell, Some Observations of the crimen ince􀃂ti, and A. Fraschetti, Le sepolture
rituali del Foro Boario, in: Le delit religieux dans la cite antique, Collection de l’EcoJe
fran􀌇aise de Rome (from now on CEFR) 48 (Rome 1981) 27-37 and 51-116; and A.
Fraschetti, La sepoJtura delle vestali e Ja citta, in: Du chätiment dans Ja cite. SuppJices
corporeJs et peine de mort dans Je monde antique, CEFR 79 (Rome 1984) 97-128.
2 Cf. A. J. Toynbee, Hannibal’s Legacy: The Hannibalic War’s Effects on Roman Life
(London 1965) 374 and A. Momigliano, Terzo Contributo alla storia degJi studi classici
e deJ mondo antico I (Rome 1966) 57-58; Elisabeth Rawson, Religion and the Politics
in the Late Second Century Rome, Phoenix 28 (1974) 198-200; Fraschetti 1981, 51-116.
3 Cornell, 36-37.
56
Here he compares the burying alive of Vestals with other punishments we
know from early Rome such as poena cullei, the traditional punishment of
parricidium. According ‚to Cornell, „the ritual function was the same in
the both cases: The removal of a defiling or „prodigious“ thing, just as
monstra were burned or thrown into the sea.“4
In this connection, however, I am not going to consider the relation
between an external threat and religious hysteria or even the problern of
the legal status of the punishment of a crimen incesti. The aim of this
paper is a less considered question of the signs connected with cases of
incestum, namely the illness of pestilentia.
„PESTILENTIA“ AND WOMEN
I shall start from the arguments of Augusto Fraschetti whose article, La
sepoltura delle vestali e la citta deals with the process of burying alive
a Vestal. His main interest is what he calls „the Roman mechanism“
of keeping the pax deorum in society. In this context he examines the
role of the „incontaminata purezza del sacerdozio di Vesta“ . Fraschetti
argues that the world of religious signs has its own language which is not
always diffi.cult to interpret.5 We know from our sources that among the
different signs and prodigies that revealed the crime of a Vestal – like the
spontaneaus extinction of the sacred fire from the atrium Vestae and the
different prodigia caelestia – there were three cases connected with the
pestilence:
1. In describing Rome’s religious situation in 472 B.C. Dionysius of Halicarnassus
teils that after the election of the consuls Lucius Pinarius
and Publius Furius6 the city was filled with fear of gods caused by the
occurrence of many portents. The sources do not mention an external
threat as in other incestum cases earlier. 7 The augurs and pontiffs
4 Cornell, 36; about poena cullei and its relations with other primitive forms of capital
punishments, see D . Briquel, Formes de mise a mort dans Ia Rome primitive, CEFR 79
(Rome 1984) 225-240.
5 Fraschetti 1984, 101 and 109: „il mondo dei prodigi possiede un suo linguazzo, talvolta
non difficile di definire“ .
6 Dion. Hal. 9.40.1; in the same connection Livy tells about Publilius Volero who brought
the bill before the people providing that plebeian magistrates should be chosen in the
tribal assembly. Publius Furius was a consul of 472 (Liv. 2.56.1) and iiivir of 467 (Liv.
3.1.6).
7 Cf. e. g. the case of Oppia/Opimia in 483 (Liv. 2.42.11; Dion. Hal. 8.89.4).
57
then declared that some of the rites were not being performed in a
correct and holy manner. The offence made the gods angry: the disease
of pestilentia attacked pregnant warnen who died giving birth to
dead offspring. This was followed by the trial of Vestal Orbinia, who
was found guilty of crimen incesti. According to Dionysius she was
whipped, which was unusual, and then, after a ritualistic procession,
buried alive. 8
2. The other case connected with the pestilentia is that of Vestal Sextilia.
According to Livy and Orosius, she was convicted of unchastity and
buried alive probably in 274 or 273 B.C.9 Fraschetti connects the case
of Sextilia with the pestilentia mentioned by Orosius two years before
in 276. It was a disease that attacked, above all, pregnant warnen and
cattle.10
3. According to Orosius, the illness arose once again after the punishment
of Sextilia and lasted until the consultation of Sibylline Books and
the suicide of Vestal Caparronia in 266 B.C.11 Fraschetti regards the
pestilentia, the consultation of Sibylline Books and the crimen incesti
of a Vestal as part of the same process.12
The ancient world, and the ancient Rome in particular, often linked the
idea of divine anger with occurrences of pestilence. According to JeanMarie
Andre, the pestilence – whatever disease or diseases it really meant
– was connected with other misfortunes like years of crop failure and
hunger.13 The epidemic was related to supernatural forces, and this primitive
attitude left its mark even on the narratives of historical times, not
8 Dion. Hai. 9.40.1-4; cf. T. R. S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic
(MRR from now on) I (New York 1951) 30; other forms of the name: cf. Fr. Münzer
RE XVIII, 1 (1939) 68o-681.
9 Liv. per. 14; pe3tilentia in 276 (Oros. 4.2.2). According to Broughton, MRR I, 197,
in 273 and according to Fr. Münzer, RE II, A 2 (1923) 2038, one year before, in 274.
1° Fraschetti 1984, 104-106.
11 Oros. 4.5.6-9; cf. Broughton, MRR I, 201.
12 Fraschetti 1984, 105-106. The role of the Sibylline Books and the ince3tu.m cases of
Vestals, cf. H. W. Parke, Sibyls and Sibylline Prophecy in Classical Antiquity (London,
New York 1988) 196-198 and 205.
13 J.-M. Andre, La notion de Pe3tilentia a Rome: du tabou religieux a l’interpretation
prescientifique, Latomus 39 (1980) 3-16.
58
only on those of legendary periods.14 Fraschetti argues that the three
cases of Orbinia, Sextilia and of Caparronia show that the incestum of a
Vestal was a threat mainly to pregnant women. He stresses that the illness
„colpiscono il mondo delle donne, quello stesso mondo cui appartengono
anche le Vestali“ .15 Fraschetti seems to indicate that the unchastity of a
Vestal Virgin brought suffering to mothers because Vestal Virgins were
women. This argument, however, needs more consideration.
FEMALE SEX AND THE SACRED ROLE OF THE VESTAL VIRGINS
To explain the prodigious character of an unehaste Vestal we should start
from the process after the discovering of the crimen incesti. Firstly, the
pontiffs declared that the sacer was not pure any longer. The guilty Vestal
was then immediately ordered to abstain from the sacred rites, sacris abstinere.
This was the normal process of the cases we know from Livy and
other sources.16 What were these sacred rites about? What kind of ritual
activities were endangered by the unehaste Vestal?
Analyzing the calendar feasts, we can get the picture of the different
ritual duties of the Vestal Virgins. During the year there were several ritual
activities connected with the female and especially matronal sphere.
Starting from the traditional beginning of the year in March, the Vestal
Virgins participated actively in the rituals of the cult of Juno Lucina and
Matronalia on the first of March, two festivals dominated by the matronal
toneY On the first of May and at the beginning of December they celebrated
with other noble ladies the cult of goddess Bona Dea.18 The most
14 Andre, 14-15; cf. also P. Garnsey, Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman
World. Responsis to Risk and Crisis (Cambridge 1988) 25-26.
15 Fraschetti 1984, 109.
16 E.g. the Minucia case in 337 (Liv. 8.15.7).
17 Ov. Fast. 3.245 ff.; Plin. Nat. Hist. 16.235; Serv. Aen. 4.518. The first day of the
month, the Kalends, was dedicated to Juno but in March it was distinguished by the
specific dedication to Juno Lucina; cf. H. H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the
Roman Republic (London 1981) 87 and M. York, The Roman Festival Calendar of
Numa Pompilius (Bern, New York, Frankfurt am Main 1986) 95. Matronalia was not
listed in the Numan calendar, but mentioned in e. g. Tert. Idol. 14 and Plaut. Mi!. 691.
Cf. the analysis concerning the different female rituals and cult organisations: J. Gage,
Matronalia, Essai sur les devotions et les organisations cultuelles des femmes dans
l’ancienne Rome, Coll. Latomus 60 (1963) 13 and 63 ff.
18 Vestal Claudia or Licinia dedicated the temple in 123 B.C. (Ov. Fast. 5.147 ff.; Macr.
59
important sacred duties of the Vestal Virgins were, of course, connected
with their own cult and the celebration of the Vestalia in June.19 The
ritual tasks in their own cult have been compared with the early Roman
household management. The preparation of mola salsa and the annual
cleaning of the aedes Vestae have been linked to the domestic role and
status of the early Roman Hausfrau20 or to the duties of the daughters of
the early kings.21
However, the meaning of the pestilence in our cases still remains without
explanation. Furthermore, the structure of the narratives of the three
cases differ a lot from each other. In the case of Orbinia we have a clear
picture of the events, closely connected to each other by the author. There
is a sign of divine anger in the form of pestilentia and after that the revelation
of the „crime“ of Orbinia. In the second case, Sextilia, the illness
is once again present but without an explicit connection. We do not know
if Orosius even saw any „logical tie“ between them. The third case, Caparronia,
supports, once again, the interpretation that in special cases
pestilentia was seen as a sign of the crimen incesti of a Vestal. This was
not, however, the only prodigious sign related to this case.
FERTILITY AND RITUAL PURITY
In his article J .-M. Andre underlines that ancient writers and Livy in
particular refer to pestilentia attacking at the same time human beings
and domestic animals. 22 If pestilentia attacked cattle as well as women we
have reason to doubt the explanation of Fraschetti. The violated sacer in
these cases did not belong to the sphere dedicated to matrons alone, as
Sat. 1.12.21; Licinia: Cic. Dom. 136), cf. Gage, 137 and Scullard, 116; the relationship
with the Greek Hygieia, see K. Latte, Römische Religionsgeschichte (München 1960)
228, and with Damia, see Festus 60L.
19 Ov. Fast. 6.310 and 395-396; cf. Petr. Sat. 44; Scullard, 148-153.
20 See Wissowa, Myth. Lex. VI, 260 and F. Guizzi, Aspetti Giuridici del Sacerdozio
Romano. ll Sacerdozio di Vesta (Napoli 1968) 109; cf. also M. Beard, The sexual
status of Vestal Virgins, JRS 70 (1980) 13.
21 See H. J. Rose, De Virginibus Vestalibus, Mnemosyne 54 (1926) 446-448, who turns
to a passage ofDion. Hai. 1.76.3; cf. also W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals, 1899,
147, Beard, 14 and in particular 0. de Cazanove, Exesto. L’incapacite sacrificielle des
femmes a Rome, Phoenix 41 (1987) 169.
22 Andre, 5.
60
he pointed out. In fact, this seems to indicate that Vestal Virgins had a
sacred status important in a wider field. Here we should consider more
closely the ritual duties they performed in order to preserve the fertility
of the whole nature, of animals and human beings alike.
According to the annual calendar the first four months of the year,
from March to June, were geared towards purification of the society for
the new growing season. During this period there were several celebrations
securing fertility of the cattle, fields and of the people.23 The Vestal Virgins
participated in old fertility cults and ceremonies such as the festivals of
Fordicidia and Parilia. These two April festivals were closely connected.
During this period pregnant cows were offered to the Earth goddess in
the ritual led by Virgo Vestalis Maxima. She tore out the unborn calves
from their mothers‘ wombs and burned them. The ashes were used as
suffimen in Parilia festival on April 21, when the shepherds and farmers
prayed Pales or Palibus to protect and purify the fl.ocks from diseases,
wolves etc.24 These spring festivals made the role of the priestesses working
for the protection of fertility very clear. This does not necessarily mean,
however, that the Romans thought that a Vestal, by loosing her virginity,
polluted these sacred rites and as a consequence, prevented the procreation
of the whole society. According to Mary Beard “ … we may reject as a final
solution the notion that their ( = the Vestals‘) status as ‚holy women‘ is
solely dependant on their purity and virginity.“25
In fact, the sacer of the Vestals was extensive and – as we have already
seen – only parts of their ritual duties were linked with matrons. As
Mary Beard stresses, the unfemale parts of their sacred role were quite
obvious.26 For example, the Vestals had many special privileges usually
connected with men. According to Plutarch and Dio, they enjoyed the
services of a lictor, a right associated with men of great importance, consuls
and praetors. lt invested the Vestal Virgins with elements of a masculine
23 Such as the festivals of Juno Lucina and .Matronalia related to the mothers, the
feasts dedicated to Mars, Tellus, Pales and Ceres and the festivals like Fordicidia, and
Parilia connected with the fertility; cf. York, 25-32 and Scullard, 85-87.
24 Fordicidia, Ov. Fast. 4.631-637, cf. Fowler, 71 and Scullard, 102; Parilia, Ov. Fast.
7.721-734 urban and 735-782 rustic festival, cf. Fowler, 79-85 and Scullard, 103-105.
25 Beard, 21.
26 Beard, 17-18; de Cazanove, 169-171 also stresses this oversexual status of the Vestal
Virgins.
61
status.27 They were also capable of giving evidence in court, and being
out of tutela, and they had all the testamentary powers usually connected
with men.28
From this point of view, even the crime of unchastity comes into a new
light. According to the theory of M. Beard, the sacral status of the Vestal
Virgin depended on her religious, social and sexual role. She was a virgin
having a status of a matron and at the same time enjoying some privileges
usually connected with men. The maintenance of this manifold role was
a precondition to the performance of the different ritual duties in „pure
and holy manner“. The sexual intercourse made the priestess a profane
woman, attached a Vestal back to the female sex and broke her oversexual
sacred status. This sacrilegious act became visible in various prodigies or
portents, signs of celestial hate or the disease attacking pregnant women
and cattle.
I started this article from Fraschetti’s argument, which connected the
pestilence in our cases with the femininity of the Vestals. As we have
already shown, this argument disregards the appearance of the disease
among the animals. As Fraschetti stressed, religious signs have their own
specific language. However, we should not interpret this too lightly. I
would rather argue that the manner in which the ira deorum became evident
in our cases depended on the nature of the rituals performed by an
incest Vestal. This being the case, we may suggest that Orbinia, Sextilia
and even Caparronia had committed their incest crimes in springtime, thus
contaminating the fertility and purification rites of this period.
27 Plut. Numa 10.3; Dio 47.
28 Aul. Gell. 7.7.2; Plut. Publ. 8.4.; Gaius, Inst. 1 . 145.
62
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
HERAUSGEGEBEN VON GERHARD JARITZ
SONDERBAND II
CRUDELITAS
The Politics of Cruelty
in the Ancient and Medieval World
Proceedings of the International Conference
Turku {Finland), May 1991
Edited by
Toivo Viljamaa, Asko Timonen
and Christian Krötzl
Krems 1992
Front page illustration: Martyrdom of Saint Barbara (detail),
Friedrich Pacher, Tyrolian, 1480-1490,
Neustift (Novacella), South Tyrol (Italy), Stiftsgalerie
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
– ISBN 3-90 1094 05 9
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnermarkt 13, A-3500 Krems, Österreich – Druck:
KOPITU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A-1050 Wien.
Contents
Preface 7
Andrew LINTOTT (Oxford): Cruelty in the Political Life
of the Ancient World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Maarit KAIMIO (Helsinki): Violence in Greek Tragedy 28
Toivo VILJAMAA (Thrku): „Crudelitatis odio in crudelitatem
ruitis“ . Livy’s Concept of Life and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Katarüna MUSTAKALLIO (Helsinki): The „crimen incesti“
of the Vestal Virgins and the Prodigious Pestilence
Asko TIMONEN (Thrku): Criticism ofDefense. The Blam-
56
ing of „Crudelitas“ in the „Historia Augusta“ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Christer BRUUN (Helsinki): Water as a Cruel Element in
the Roman World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4
Luigi de ANNA (Thrku): Elogio della crudelta. Aspetti
della violenza nel mondo antico e medievale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Greti DINKOVA-BRUUN (Helsinki): Cruelty and the Medieval
Intellectual: The Case of Peter Abelard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Christian KRÖTZL (Tampere): „Crudeliter affiicta“ . Zur
Darstellung von Gewalt und Grausamkeit in mittelalterlichen
Mirakelberichten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5
Thomas LINDKVIST (Uppsala) : The Politics of Violence
and the Transition from Viking Age to Medieval Scandinavia
Alain DUCELLIER (Toulouse): Byzance, Juge Cruel dans
un Environnement Cruel? Notes sur le „Musulman cruel“
dans l’Empire byzantin entre Vlleme et XIIlerne siedes
Asko TIMONEN (Turku): Select Bibliography
6
139
148
181
Preface
The present volume is a collection of the papers read at the conference
which was held in May 1991 at the University of Turku on the theme
The Politics of Cruelty in the A ncient and Medieval World. The general
aim of the conference was to advance interdisciplinary and international
collaboration in the fields of humanistic studies and particularly to bring
together scholars who have common interests in the study of our past.
The choice of the subject of cruelty naturally resulted from different study
projects concerning the political and social history of late antiquity and
the Middle Ages – the Roman imperial propaganda, the conß.ict between
paganism and christianity, the history of the Vandals, the Byzantine empires,
the Medieval miracle stories, to name some of them. Perhaps also
contemporary events had an influence on the idea that cruelty could be
the theme which conveniently would unite those various interests. And
the idea emerged irrespective of considerations whether or not we should
search for models in the Ancient World or join those who, as it seems to
have been a fashion, insist on investigating what we have common with
the Middle Ages.
One might argue – and for a good reason indeed – that cruelty is
a subject for anthropologists and psychologists, not for philologists and
historians. Where does the student of history find reliable criteria for
defining the notion of cruelty in order to judge the men of the past and their
actions, to charge with cruelty not only individuals but also nations and
even ages („the crudelitas imperatorum“ , „the Dark Ages“ , „the violence of
the Vikings“, „the cruel Muslims“ )? Is it not so that the only possibility is
to adapt our modern sensibilities to the past and to use our own prejudices
in making judgements about others? The prejudices – yes, but this is just
what makes the theme interesting for the historian because our prejudices
– our conception of cruelty, for instance – are part of the heritage of past
centuries. The events of our own day – maybe more clearly than ever – have
demonstrated that we live in a historical world. When we investigate the
history of the concept of cruelty we, as it were, Iook ourselves at a mirror
and learn to understand ourselves better. The concept of cruelty has two
sides. It is a subjective concept used to define and describe those persons
7
and those acts that according to the user of the term are negative, harmful,
humiliating, harsh, inhumane, primitive and unnatural; in everyday life
it is associated with religious habits – with crude remnants of primitive
religion, it is associated with passion, an uncontrolled mental state, or with
violence and with the exercise of power without justice. On the other hand
the term is used to classify people by their ethical and social habits, to
accuse, to invalidate and injure others; therefore the accusation of cruelty
refers to basic features of ancient and also Medieval thought, to the fear of
anything foreign, to the aggressive curiosity to define and subsume others
simply by their otherness.
Such were the considerations wich gave inspiration for arranging the
„cruelty“ -seminar. The conference was accommodated by the Archipelago
Institute of the University of Turku, in the island Seili („Soul island“) , in
an environment of quiet beauty of the remote island and sad memories of
the centuries when people attacked by a cruel fate, lepers or mentally ill,
were banished there from the civilized community.
The conference was organized by the Department of Classics of the
University of Turku in collaboration with the Departments of Cultural
History and Italian language and culture of the same university. It is a
pleasure to us to be able to thank here all those who helped to make the
congress possible. We would like especially to express our gratitude to
Luigi de Anna and Hannu Laaksonen for their assistance in preparing and
carrying out the practical arrangements. The financial assistance given by
the Finnish Academy and by the Turku University Foundation was also
indispensable. Finally, we close by expressing our gratitude to Gerhard
Jaritz, the editor of the Medium Aevum Quotidianum for the Gesellschaft
fü r Erforschung der materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, for his kind COoperation
and for accepting this collection of papers to be published as a
supplement to the series of the studies on the Medieval everyday life. One
of the starting-points for organizing the „cruelty“ -conference was the firm
conviction that the Graeco-Roman Antiquity did not end with the beginning
of the Middle Ages, but these two eras form a continuum in many
respects, and the continuity was felt not only in the literary culture, in the
Greek and Latin languages which were still used, but also in the political,
social and religious structures of the Middle Ages. We think that this
continuity is amply demonstrated by the studies of the present volume.
Department of Classics, University of Turku, Finland
8