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| House of the Vestal Virgins |
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The House of the Vestals was the headquarters for the only female
priests in ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins, who tended the sacred hearth in the Temple of Vesta. Vestals began their
service at age 10, undergoing ten years of training. For ten years, they tended the flame, and then for ten more they
taught the new Vestals. At age 40, they were allowed to marry. They were very powerful, but any Vestal who allowed
the flame to go out was severely punished, and any who were found not to be virgins were buried alive. This order served
as the inspiration for the convents of nuns established in the Middle Ages.
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| Ara di Cesare |
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Gaius Julius Caesar served as consul when
he was 42 and thereafter made a name for himself commanding the legions in Gaul (France) and Egypt. After the Egyptian
king had murdered Caesar's son-in-law and rival, Pompey, and after Caesar
had brought the king's sister, Cleopatra, to Rome, Caesar was named dictator by the Senate. Fearing that Caesar would
destroy the Republic, a group of senators, including Caesar's close confidant Brutus, plotted to assassinate him on March
15, 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed repeatedly during a meeting of the Senate in Pompey's Theater in the Campus Martius.
His body was then brought to the Forum and cremated. Caesar's lieutenant, Mark Antony, delivered the funeral oration
("Friends, Romans, countrymen...") and Caesar's grandnephew, adopted son and heir, Octavian (Augustus), had a temple built
to the "Divine Julius." This is all that's left, although even today the citizens of Rome remember Caesar on the anniversary
of his death.
| Curia |
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The Curia was the place where the Senate met. The first Curia
was built during the days of the kings. The number of senators varied over the centuries, and after the advent of the
Empire they lost all but symbolic power. During the Republic, however, they governed the state with the consent of the
assemblies of the people. All laws were issued with the acronym, "S.P.Q.R."; the Latin means "The Senate and People
of Rome." Even today, all edicts by the city council of Rome contain this acronym (even the manhole covers have it!).
It is the world's oldest acronym in constant use after 2,500 years. The original Curia burned in 52 B.C., and Caesar
ordered it rebuilt. While it was being rebuilt, the Senate met elsewhere. It was for this reason that the Senate
was meeting in the Campus Martius at Pompey's Theater when Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. Augustus finished the
new Curia, and Diocletian repaired it in the late 3d century. After the fall of the western Empire, the Curia was converted
into a church, and this is the reason it is in such good repair. Mussolini ordered the church removed and the building
returned to its ancient appearance.
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