[2] The second, to those called by the Greeks stephanêphoroi or “wearers of the crown” and by the Romans flamines; they are given this name from their wearing caps and fillets, called † flama, which they continue to wear even to this day.
[3] τὴν δὲ τρίτην τοῖς ἡγεμόσι τῶν κελερίων, οὓς ἔφην ἱππεῖς τε καὶ πεζοὺς στρατευομένους φύλακας ἀποδείκνυσθαι τῶν βασιλέων, καὶ γὰρ οὗτοι τεταγμένας τινὰς [p. 246]
[3] The third, to the commanders of the celeres, who, as I have stated, were appointed to be the body-guards of the kings and fought both as cavalry and infantry; for these also performed certain specified religious rites.
[4] ἱερουργίας ἐπετέλουν. τὴν δὲ τετάρτην τοῖς ἐξηγουμένοις τὰ θεόπεμπτα σημεῖα καὶ διαιροῦσι τίνων ἐστὶ μηνύματα πραγμάτων ἰδίᾳ τε καὶ δημοσίᾳ, οὓς ἀφ᾽ ἑνὸς εἴδους τῶν θεωρημάτων τῆς τέχνης Ῥωμαῖοι καλοῦσιν αὔγορας, ἡμεῖς δ᾽ ἂν εἴποιμεν οἰωνοπόλους, ἁπάσης τῆς μαντικῆς παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς ὄντας ἐπιστήμονας τῆς τε περὶ τὰ οὐράνια καὶ τὰ μετάρσια καὶ
[4] The fourth, to those who interpret the signs sent by the gods and determine what they portend both to private persons and to the public; these, from one branch of the speculations belonging to their art, the Romans call augurs, and we should call them oiônopoloi or “soothsayers by means of birds”; they are skilled in all sorts of divination in use among the Romans, whether founded on signs appearing in the heavens, in mid-air or on the earth.
[5] τὰ ἐπίγεια. τὴν δὲ πέμπτην ταῖς φυλαττούσαις τὸ ἱερὸν πῦρ παρθένοις, αἳ καλοῦνται πρὸς αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τῆς θεᾶς ἣν θεραπεύουσιν ἑστιάδες, αὐτὸς πρῶτος ἱερὸν ἱδρυσάμενος Ῥωμαίοις Ἑστίας καὶ παρθένους ἀποδείξας αὐτῇ θυηπόλους: ὑπὲρ ὧν ὀλίγα καὶ αὐτὰ τἀναγκαιότατα τῆς ὑποθέσεως ἀπαιτούσης ἀναγκαῖον εἰπεῖν. ἔστι γὰρ ἃ καὶ ζητήσεως ἠξίωται καὶ παρὰ πολλοῖς τῶν Ῥωμαϊκῶν συγγραφέων κατὰ τὸν τόπον τοῦτον, ὑπὲρ ὧν οἱ τὰς αἰτίας οὐκ ἐξητακότες ἐπιμελῶς εἰκαιοτέρας ἐξήνεγκαν τὰς γραφάς.
[5] The fifth he assigned to the virgins who are the guardians of the sacred fire and who are called Vestals by the Romans, after the goddess whom they serve, he himself having been the first to build a temple at Rome to Vesta and to appoint virgins to be her priestesses. But concerning them it is necessary to make a few statements that are most essential, since the subject requires it; for there are problems that have been thought worthy of investigation by many Roman historians in connexion with this topic and those authors who have not diligently examined into the causes of these matters have published rather worthless accounts.
[1] τὴν γοῦν ἵδρυσιν τοῦ ἱεροῦ Ῥωμύλῳ τινὲς ἀνατιθέασι τῶν ἀμηχάνων νομίζοντες εἶναι πόλεως οἰκιζομένης ὑπ᾽ ἀνδρὸς ἐμπείρου μαντικῆς μὴ κατασκευασθῆναι πρῶτον ἑστίαν κοινὴν τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ταῦτα ἐν Ἄλβᾳ τοῦ κτίστου τραφέντος, ἐν ᾗ παλαιὸν ἐξ οὗ τὸ τῆς θεᾶς ταύτης ἱερὸν ἱδρυμένον ἦν, καὶ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ θυηπόλου γενομένης τῇ [p. 247] θεῷ: διαιρούμενοί τε διχῇ τὰ ἱερὰ καὶ τὰ μὲν αὐτῶν κοινὰ ποιοῦντες καὶ πολιτικά, τὰ δὲ ἴδια καὶ συγγενικά, δι᾽ ἄμφω ταῦτά φασι πολλὴν ἀνάγκην εἶναι τῷ Ῥωμύλῳ ταύτην σέβειν τὴν θεόν.
[65.1] At any rate, as regards the building of the temple of Vesta, some ascribe it to Romulus, looking upon it as an inconceivable thing that, when a city was being founded by a man skilled in divination, a public hearth should not have been erected first of all, particularly since the founder had been brought up at Alba, where the temple of this goddess had been established from ancient times, and since his mother had been her priestess. And recognizing two classes of religious ceremonies — the one public and common to all the citizens, and the other private and confined to particular families — they declare that on both these grounds Romulus was under every obligation to worship this goddess.
[2] οὔτε γὰρ ἀναγκαιότερον ἀνθρώποις οὐδὲν εἶναι τῆς κοινῆς ἑστίας οὔτε τῷ Ῥωμύλῳ κατὰ διαδοχὴν γένους οὐδὲν οἰκειότερον προγόνων μὲν ὑπάρχοντι τῶν ἐξ Ἰλίου τὰ τῆς θεᾶς ἱερὰ μετενεγκαμένων, μητρὸς δὲ ἱερείας. ἐοίκασι δ᾽ οἱ διὰ ταῦτα τὴν ἵδρυσιν τοῦ ἱεροῦ Ῥωμύλῳ μᾶλλον ἀνατιθέντες ἢ Νόμᾳ, τὸ μὲν κοινὸν ὀρθῶς λέγειν, ὅτι πόλεως οἰκιζομένης ἑστίαν πρῶτον ἔδει ἱδρυθῆναι καὶ ταῦτα ὑπ᾽ ἀνδρὸς οὐκ ἀπείρου τῆς περὶ τὰ θεῖα σοφίας, τὰ δὲ κατὰ μέρος ὑπέρ τε τῆς κατασκευῆς τοῦ νῦν ὄντος ἱεροῦ καὶ τῶν θεραπευουσῶν τὴν θεὸν παρθένων ἠγνοηκέναι.
[2] For they say that nothing is more necessary for men than a public hearth, and that nothing more nearly concerned Romulus, in view of his descent, since his ancestors had brought the sacred rites of this goddess from Ilium and his mother had been her priestess. Those, then, who for these reasons ascribe the building of the temple to Romulus rather than to Numa seem to be right, in so far as the general principle is concerned, that when a city was being founded, it was necessary for a hearth to be established first of all, particularly by a man who was not unskilled in matters of religion; but of the details relating to the building of the present temple and to the virgins who are in the service of the goddess they seem to have been ignorant.
[3] οὔτε γὰρ τὸ χωρίον τοῦτο ἐν ᾧ τὸ ἱερὸν φυλάττεται πῦρ Ῥωμύλος ἦν ὁ καθιερώσας τῇ θεῷ ῾μέγα δὲ τούτου τεκμήριον ὅτι τῆς τετραγώνου καλουμένης Ῥώμης ἣν ἐκεῖνος ἐτείχισεν ἐκτός ἐστιν, ἑστίας δὲ κοινῆς ἱερὸν ἐν τῷ κρατίστῳ μάλιστα καθιδρύονται τῆς πόλεως ἅπαντες, ἔξω δὲ τοῦ τείχους οὐδείσ᾽ οὔτε διὰ παρθένων τὰς θεραπείας κατεστήσατο τῇ θεῷ μεμνημένος ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ τοῦ περὶ τὴν μητέρα πάθους, ᾗ συνέβη θεραπευούσῃ τὴν θεὸν τὴν παρθενίαν ἀποβαλεῖν, ὡς οὐχ ἱκανὸς ἐσόμενος, ἐάν τινα τῶν θυηπόλων εὕρῃ διεφθαρμένην, κατὰ τοὺς πατρίους τιμωρήσασθαι νόμους διὰ τὴν ἐπὶ ταῖς οἰκείαις συμφοραῖς ἀνάμνησιν.
[3] For, in the first place, it was not Romulus who consecrated to the goddess this place where the sacred fire is preserved (a strong proof of this is that it is outside of what they call Roma Quadrata, which he surrounded with a wall, whereas all men place the shrine of the public hearth in the best part of a city and nobody outside of the walls); and, in the second place, he did not appoint the service of the goddess to be performed by virgins, being mindful, I believe, of the experience that had befallen his mother, who wh
ile she was serving the goddess lost her virginity; for he doubtless felt that the remembrance of his domestic misfortunes would make it impossible for him to punish according to the traditional laws any of the priestesses he should find to have been violated.
[4] διὰ ταῦτα μὲν δὴ κοινὸν [p. 248] ἱερὸν οὐ κατεσκευάσατο τῆς Ἑστίας οὐδὲ ἱερείας ἔταξεν αὐτῇ παρθένους, ἐν ἑκάστῃ δὲ τῶν τριάκοντα φρατριῶν ἱδρυσάμενος ἑστίαν, ἐφ᾽ ἧς ἔθυον οἱ φρατριεῖς, θυηπόλους αὐτῶν ἐποίησε τοὺς τῶν κουριῶν ἡγεμόνας τὰ παρ᾽ Ἕλλησιν ἔθη μιμησάμενος, ἃ παρὰ ταῖς ἀρχαιοτάταις τῶν πόλεων ἔτι γίγνεται. τά γέ τοι καλούμενα πρυτανεῖα παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς Ἑστίας ἐστὶν ἱερά, καὶ θεραπεύεται πρὸς τῶν ἐχόντων τὸ μέγιστον ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι κράτος.
[4] For this reason, therefore, he did not build a common temple of Vesta nor did he appoint virgins to be her priestesses; but having erected a hearth in each of the thirty curiae on which the members sacrificed, he appointed the chiefs of the curiae to be the priests of those hearths, therein imitating the customs of the Greeks that are still observed in the most ancient cities. At any rate, what are called prytaneia among them are temples of Hestia, and are served by the chief magistrates of the cities.
[1] νόμας δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν παραλαβὼν τὰς μὲν ἰδίας οὐκ ἐκίνησε τῶν φρατριῶν ἑστίας, κοινὴν δὲ κατεστήσατο πάντων μίαν ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ τοῦ τε Καπιτωλίου καὶ τοῦ Παλατίου χωρίῳ, συμπεπολισμένων ἤδη τῶν λόφων ἑνὶ περιβόλῳ καὶ μέσης ἀμφοῖν οὔσης τῆς ἀγορᾶς, ἐν ᾗ κατεσκεύασται τὸ ἱερόν, τήν τε φυλακὴν τῶν ἱερῶν κατὰ τὸν πάτριον τῶν Λατίνων νόμον διὰ παρθένων ἐνομοθέτησε γίνεσθαι:
[66.1] Numa, upon taking over the rule, did not disturb the individual hearths of the curiae, but erected one common to them all in the space between the Capitoline hill and the Palatine (for these hills had already been united by a single wall into one city, and the Forum, in which the temple is built, lies between them), and he enacted, in accordance with the ancestral custom of the Latins, that the guarding of the holy things should be committed to virgins.
[2] ἔχει δέ τινας ἀπορίας καὶ τὸ φυλαττόμενον ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ τί δήποτέ ἐστι καὶ διὰ τί πρόσκειται παρθένοις. τινὲς μὲν οὖν οὐδὲν ἔξω τοῦ φανεροῦ πυρὸς εἶναί φασι τὸ τηρούμενον, τὴν δὲ φυλακὴν αὐτοῦ παρθένοις ἀνακεῖσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ ἀνδράσι ποιοῦνται κατὰ τὸ εἰκός, ὅτι πῦρ μὲν ἀμίαντον, παρθένος δ᾽ ἄφθαρτον, τῷ δ᾽ ἁγνοτάτῳ τῶν θείων τὸν καθαρώτατον τῶν θνητῶν φίλον.
[2] There is some doubt, however, what it is that is kept in this temple and for what reason the care of it has been assigned to virgins, some affirming that nothing is preserved there but the fire, which is visible to everybody. And they very reasonably argue that the custody of the fire was committed to virgins, rather than to men, because fire in incorrupt and a virgin is undefiled, and the most chaste of mortal things must be agreeable to the purest of those that are divine.
[3] Ἑστίᾳ δ᾽ ἀνακεῖσθαι τὸ πῦρ νομίζουσιν, ὅτι γῆ τε οὖσα ἡ θεὸς καὶ τὸν μέσον κατέχουσα [p. 249] τοῦ κόσμου τόπον τὰς ἀνάψεις τοῦ μεταρσίου ποιεῖται πυρὸς ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτῆς. εἰσὶ δέ τινες οἵ φασιν ἔξω τοῦ πυρὸς ἀπόρρητα τοῖς πολλοῖς ἱερὰ κεῖσθαί τινα ἐν τῷ τεμένει τῆς θεᾶς, ὧν οἵ τε ἱεροφάνται τὴν γνῶσιν ἔχουσι καὶ αἱ παρθένοι, τεκμήριον οὐ μικρὸν παρεχόμενοι τοῦ λόγου τὸ συμβὰν περὶ τὴν ἔμπρησιν τοῦ ἱεροῦ κατὰ τὸν Φοινικικὸν πόλεμον τὸν πρῶτον συστάντα Ῥωμαῖοις πρὸς Καρχηδονίους περὶ Σικελίας.
[3] And they regard the fire as consecrated to Vesta because that goddess, being the earth and occupying the central place in the universe, kindles the celestial fires from herself. But there are some who say that besides the fire there are some holy things in the temple of the goddess that may not be revealed to the public, of which only the pontiffs and the virgins have knowledge. As a strong confirmation of this story they cite what happened at the burning of the temple during the First Punic War between the Romans and the Carthaginians over Sicily.
[4] ἐμπρησθέντος γὰρ τοῦ τεμένους καὶ τῶν παρθένων φευγουσῶν ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς τῶν ἱεροφαντῶν τις Λεύκιος Καικίλιος ὁ καλούμενος Μέτελλος ἀνὴρ ὑπατικός, ὁ τὸν ἀοίδιμον ἐκ Σικελίας ἀπὸ Καρχηδονίων καταγαγὼν ὀκτὼ καὶ τριάκοντα καὶ ἑκατὸν ἐλεφάντων θρίαμβον, ὑπεριδὼν τῆς ἰδίας ἀσφαλείας τοῦ κοινῇ συμφέροντος ἕνεκα παρεκινδύνευσεν εἰς τὰ καιόμενα βιάσασθαι καὶ τὰ καταλειφθέντα ὑπὸ τῶν παρθένων ἁρπάσας ἱερὰ διέσωσεν ἐκ τοῦ πυρός: ἐφ᾽ ᾧ τιμὰς παρὰ τῆς πόλεως ἐξηνέγκατο μεγάλας, ὡς ἡ τῆς εἰκόνος αὐτοῦ τῆς ἐν Καπιτωλίῳ κειμένης ἐπιγραφὴ μαρτυρεῖ.
[4] For when the temple caught fire and the virgins fled from the flames, one of the pontiffs, Lucius Caecilius, called Metellus, a man of consular rank, the same who exhibited a hundred and thirty-eight elephants in the memorable triumph which he celebrated for his defeat of the Carthaginians in Sicily, neglecting his own safety for the sake of the public good, ventured to force his way into the burning structure, and, snatching up the holy things which the virgins had abandoned, saved them from the fire; for which he received the honours from the State, as the inscription upon his statue on the Capitol testifies.
[5] τοῦτο δὴ λαβόντες ὁμολογούμενον ἐπισυνάπτουσιν αὐτοὶ στοχασμούς τινας ἰδίους, οἱ μὲν ἐκ τῶν ἐν Σαμοθρᾴκῃ λέγοντες ἱερῶν μοῖραν εἶναί τινα φυλαττομένην τὴν ἐνθάδε, Δαρδάνου μὲν εἰς τὴν ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ κτισθεῖσαν πόλιν ἐκ τῆς νήσου τὰ ἱερὰ μετενεγκαμένου, [p. 250] Αἰνείου δὲ, ὅτ᾽ ἔφυγεν ἐκ τῆς Τρωάδος ἅμα τοῖς ἄλλοις καὶ ταῦτα κομίσαντος εἰς Ἰταλίαν, οἱ δὲ τὸ διοπετὲς Παλλάδιον ἀποφαίνοντες εἶναι τὸ παρ᾽ Ἰλιεῦσι γενόμενον, ὡς Αἰνείου κομίσαντος αὐτὸ δι᾽ ἐμπειρίαν, Ἀχαιῶν δὲ τὸ μίμημα αὐτοῦ λαβόντων κλοπῇ: περὶ οὗ πολλοὶ σφόδρα εἴρηνται ποιηταῖς τε καὶ συγγραφεῦσι λόγοι.
[5] Taking this incident, then, as an admitted fact, they add some conjectures of their own. Thus, some affirm that the objects preserved here are a part of those holy things which were once in Samothrace; that Dardanus removed them out of that island into the city which he himself had built, and that Aeneas, when he fled from the Troad, brought them along with the other holy things into Italy. But others declare that it is the Palla
dium that fell from Heaven, the same that was in the possession of the people of Ilium; for they hold that Aeneas, being well acquainted with it, brought it into Italy, whereas the Achaeans stole away the copy, — an incident about which many stories have been related both by poets and by historians.
[6] ἐγὼ δὲ τὸ μὲν εἶναί τινα τοῖς πολλοῖς ἄδηλα ἱερὰ φυλαττόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν παρθένων καὶ οὐ τὸ πῦρ μόνον ἐκ πολλῶν πάνυ καταλαμβάνομαι, τίνα δὲ ταῦτ᾽ ἔστιν οὐκ ἀξιῶ πολυπραγμονεῖν οὔτ᾽ ἐμαυτὸν οὔτε ἄλλον οὐδένα τῶν βουλομένων τὰ πρὸς θεοὺς ὅσια τηρεῖν.
[6] For my part, I find from very many evidences that there are indeed some holy things, unknown to the public, kept by the virgins, and not the fire alone; but what they are I do not think should be inquired into too curiously, either by me of by anyone else who wishes to observe the reverence due to the gods.
[1] αἱ δὲ θεραπεύουσαι τὴν θεὸν παρθένοι τέτταρες μὲν ἦσαν κατ᾽ ἀρχὰς τῶν βασιλέων αὐτὰς αἱρουμένων ἐφ᾽ οἷς κατεστήσατο δικαίοις ὁ Νόμας, ὕστερον δὲ διὰ πλῆθος τῶν ἱερουργιῶν ἃς ἐπιτελοῦσιν ἓξ γενόμεναι μέχρι τοῦ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς διαμένουσι χρόνου δίαιταν ἔχουσαι παρὰ τῇ θεῷ, ἔνθα δι᾽ ἡμέρας μὲν οὐδεὶς. ἀπείργεται τῶν βουλομένων εἰσιέναι, νύκτωρ δὲ οὐδενὶ τῶν ἀρρένων ἐναυλίσασθαι θέμις.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 466