ABSTRACT
Although many of our ancient sources for the Vestals focus on these priestesses’ religious rituals and cult activities, others concern themselves with specific historical events. Chapters 6 and 7 examine these references both for what they can tell us about the Vestals’ place in the Romans’ view of their own history and for what they can tell us about the priestesses’ actual role in Rome’s history. This chapter considers the appearances of the Vestals in what might best be termed the late Republic’s and early Empire’s own version of Roman history, that is to say the Vestals’ appearances in Roman historical accounts of the centuries between the founding of Rome and the end of the Second Punic War. Chapter 7 deals with the various historical appearances of the Vestals from the end of this war to the end of the first century ce for which we have contemporary or almost contemporary sources.
