![]() As well as their obligations on behalf of Rome, Vestals had extraordinary rights and privileges, some of which were granted to no others, male or female. ![]() Vesta's acolytes vowed to serve her for at least thirty years, to study and practise her rites in service of the Roman State, and to maintain their chastity throughout. They were supervised by a senior vestal but chosen and governed by Rome's leading male priest, the Pontifex maximus in the Imperial era, this meant the emperor. ![]() They were chosen before puberty from a number of suitable candidates, freed from any legal ties and obligations to their birth family, and enrolled in Vesta's priestly college of six priestesses. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( Latin: Vestālēs, singular Vestālis ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. 1st-century BC (43–39 BC) aureus depicting a seated Vestal Virgin marked vestalis
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