by L. Todd Wood
With that reply she turned and walked back across the gardens. The senator disappeared into the night. What neither of them saw was another young girl, barely fourteen, also in a white night dress in the garden, hiding behind a column at the Temple of Vesta. She was Cornelia, one of the other five virgins. She had been guarding the flame through the night. Cornelia was still young but quite adamant in her opinion of herself and the importance of her role in Roman society. She was new to the temple and rather passionate about her duties. Cornelia was also a budding woman and felt subconsciously angry about not being able to talk to the young boys she frequently saw looking at her. She was jealous of the other girls in society and really quite angry about it. She knew that it was not permitted to meet male Romans without a chaperon, especially at night, and decided to take her anger out on Julia, as it was the only avenue she had, however misguided. Had Julia broken her vow of celibacy to the temple? She would need to report this to the authorities. She was certain she would be well rewarded by the emperor.
The next day, Julia rose late in the morning after a fitful sleep. She had not slept well after the meeting with the senator, and sleeping with the scroll draped around her neck would take some getting used to. She moved to the window and drew the curtain to let in some light. Strange, her morning servant was not next to her when she woke. That had never happened before. Her servant had taken care of her every need flawlessly for years. Since she had slept late, she was hungry. There was no breakfast by her bed either as she had grown accustomed to over the last twenty-eight years. A twinge of fear rose up her spine. She walked to the door to the outside chamber and opened it.
Her heart melted in terror as she saw the Praetorian guards outside of her sleeping quarters, waiting for her. The ten soldiers were in full ornamental battle gear and had no thoughts of allowing this girl to get away after the emperor's instructions. The emperor had a habit of decimating soldiers he surmised were not loyal. The practice consisted of killing one in ten men in a unit in order to ensure discipline. No, they would not let her get away. In fact they would enjoy this task.
“No, please, I can explain!” she shrieked and dropped to the floor, sobbing. Denouncing a virgin for incest against the state was a serious offense. The emperor used this opportunity shrewdly to blame this treason for his recent failures in battle and deflect blame from himself.
The guards picked her up off the ground and tied her hands behind her back. “It is too late for you; it has already been decided. You have broken your vow to Rome and the Temple of Vesta.” Julia screamed in horror, as she knew what was awaiting her. She wailed as they dragged her by the hair from her bedroom and out of the College of Virgins. The pain added to her fear but was nothing compared to what she was about to experience.
The soldiers carried her to the cobblestone road outside the temple grounds in the center of Foro Romano. The crowds had already gathered, as the word had spread fast of what was to happen. This was even better entertainment than the gladiators in the Coliseum. No one wanted to miss the show. They were used to the emperor providing routine ghoulish spectacles to divert attention from their miserable and declining living conditions. The crowd was excited.
First she was whipped by a thick cane fifty times. The back of her white clothes became stained with blood. She was close to unconsciousness but hoisted onto a funeral cart and tied to a stake emanating from the center. A pail of cold water was thrown in her face to wake her up in order to enjoy the procession. Soon she was again screaming in horror and shock at what was happening. She had done nothing wrong! She had been true to Rome; she no longer even had any sexual feelings. Those had vanished long ago. She had been true to her oath. But today it didn’t matter.
The cart wound its way through the center of the ancient city and slowly made its way outside of the massive walls to the place where the dead were buried, to the Campus Sceleratus, a small rise near the gate. Roman citizens lined the streets to witness the spectacle. Some were empathetic and sad, others were enjoying the cruel procession and used the occasion to start another decadent binge of drinking, drugs, and sex. The corruption of the Roman ethos was almost complete.
Julia had fainted with shock in the now hot sun. Her head hung limp on her shoulder as her body was supported by the cords strapping her to the pole. Soon the procession stopped. Another bucket of cold water from the nearby aquifer was thrown on her to wake her up. She looked up and hoped she had awoken from a nightmare but stood in shock as she realized it was not the case.
Her parents and family were screaming and crying behind a wall of soldiers protecting the executioner. The wealthy family, once close to the emperor’s court, would now be banished. Their lives changed forever. They would be lucky to escape with their lives and would soon be making hurried plans to flee the city.
The soldiers untied her from the cart and dragged her by her bound hands to the hillside below. The ropes around her wrists and the rocks on the ground cut into her skin. She pleaded with them to listen to the truth, but they ignored her. They led her to an open tomb. They stopped in front of the crypt, and a Roman judge walked up to her and began to speak.
“You have broken your sacred vow to Rome. You will now accept the consequences of your pleasure of the flesh.” At this point, Julia was too weak to protest. The soldiers walked into the crypt and placed an oil lamp on one of the slabs next to a decaying body. The air smelled of death, as one of the bodies was fresh from burial a week before. The soldier adjusted the wick and lit the lamp. Beside the lamp he placed a loaf of bread and a cup of water. Then they brought Julia into the tomb and pushed her to the floor. She was mumbling in an incomprehensible manner.
The rock was then moved to close the tomb. The last vestige of light twinkled out as the stone was rolled across the opening. Julia’s voice was drowned out to the outside world, and her screams whispered like death on the wind.
No one noticed the richly dressed man standing in the crowd. If they did notice, they did not speak to him. The power emanating from his stature made it clear he was not to be spoken to, although no one recognized him as a local. He was dressed in a way which was foreign to Roman society, but it was obvious he was a man of sophistication. If they had noticed him, they would have seen he was smiling.
One hundred years later, Emperor Theodosius I extinguished the fire in the hearth of the Temple of Vesta as he proclaimed it inconsistent with Christianity, now the official religion of Rome. A few years later, Rome fell to the barbarians.
