ABSTRACT
Valerius has shown us how the spirit of caerimonia towards Vesta animated the breast of Lucius Albinius, a private citizen of Rome (1.1.10). Valerius also reveals that Vesta prefers morally upright poverty to riches (4.4.11).136
By no means, however, does Valerius view abject poverty, squalor, and humiliation as somehow per se spiritually ennobling. Valerius’ Vesta encourages a poverty of power.137
