CHAPTER V.
ATRIUM VESTAE.
When the Romans were a pastoral people at Alba, then it was the duty ofthe young girls to attend to the common hearth and keep the fire everburning. To obtain fresh fire was not always possible, and at the best oftimes not easy.
Fire was esteemed sacred, being so mysterious, and so indispensable, andreverence was made to the domestic hearth (hestia) as the altar of theFire goddess.
When the Roman settlement was made on the banks of the Tiber, one hut of acircular form was constituted the central hearth, and provision was madethat thence every household should obtain its fire. This hut became theTemple of Hestia or Vesta, and certain girls were set apart to watch thefire that it should never become extinguished.
This was the origin of the institution of the Vestal Virgins, aninstitution which lasted from the founding of Rome in B. C. 753, to thedisestablishment of Paganism, and the expulsion of the last Vestal, inA. D. 394, nearly eleven hundred and fifty years.
No girl under six or above ten years of age was admissible as priestess ofthe sacred fire, and but six damsels were allowed,--their term of servicewas thirty years, after which the Vestal was free to return home and tomarry. The eldest of the Vestals was termed Maxima, and she acted assuperior or abbess over the community.
They enjoyed great possessions and privileges and were shown the mostextraordinary respect. Seats of honor were accorded to the Vestals in thetheatres, the amphitheatre and the circus.
The Vestals had other duties to perform beside that of maintaining theperpetual fire. They preserved the palladia of Rome, those mysteriousarticles on which the prosperity, nay, the very existence of the city wasthought to depend. What these were was never known. The last Vestalcarried them away and concealed them. With her death the secret was lost.Moreover, they took charge of the wills of great men, emperors and nobles,and in times of civil war they mediated between the conflicting parties.
Cornelia gently detached the hands of Domitia from the altar of Vesta, andled her within the college of the Vestals, the only door to which openedon the platform on which stood the Temple.
On entering, she found herself in an oblong court surrounded on all foursides by a cloister, the prototype of those to be in later days erected inthe several convents and abbeys, and collegiate buildings of Christendom.In the open space in the midst was the circular treasury of the palladia,at one end was the well whence the virgins drew their water. The cloisterwas composed of marble columns, and sustained an upper gallery, also opento the court but roofed over and the roof supported on columns of redmarble.
Between the columns below and above stood statues of the Superiors, whohad merited commemoration. There was no garden, the place for walking wasthe cloister.
Cornelia conducted Domitia into the reception-chamber, and kissing hersaid:--
"Under the protection of the Goddess you are safe."
"I trust I in no way endanger your safety."
"Mine!" Cornelia laughed. "There is none above me save the supremepontiff, and so long as I do no wrong, no one can molest me. But tellme--what wilt thou do?"
"In the first place send out and bid my servants return home; and if theyask when to come for me, answer, when I send for them."
"That is easily done," said the Abbess. She clapped her hands and a slavegirl answered and received this commission.
"Now," said she, "now we come to the real difficulty. Here you are, buthere you cannot tarry for long. For six days we may accord sanctuary, butfor no more. After that we must deliver over the person who has takenrefuge with us if required."
"I have for some time considered what might be done. I have been somiserable, so degraded, so impatient, that I have racked my brain how toescape, and I see but one course. When we were at Cenchraea, my mother andI, we were in the house of a Greek client of our family, who was very kindto us, and his wife loved me well. If I could escape thither in disguise,then I think he would be able to secrete me, there are none so astute asare the Greeks, and who so love to outwit their masters."
"But how is this possible?"
"That I know not--only let me get away from Rome, then trust my craft toenable me to evade pursuit. Let it be given out that I am here infulfilment of a vow, then no suspicion will be roused, and I can take mymeasures."
"It is not possible," said Cornelia in some alarm. "Have you consideredwhat your mother said? the Augustus is all-seeing and all-powerful, andhas his hand everywhere."
"Get me out of Italy, and I shall be safe. I will not return to thePalatine. If my life was hateful to me before, what will it be made now?Then _he_ had some fear of his father and of his brother, now he has noneto fear."
The Vestal said, "Let me have time to think this over--and yet, it doth notseem to me feasible."
"Get me but a beggar's suit, and walnut juice, that I may stain my faceand hands and arms. I will wash all this gold-dust from my hair--and Iwarrant you none will know me, with a staff and a wallet, I will go forth,right willingly. I will not return to _him_."
"That is impossible. You--with your beauty--your nobility----"
"My nobility is of no account with me now."
"You think so, and so it may be whilst untouched, but I am certain theleast ruffle would make your pride flash out."
Domitia remembered her resentment at the physician's apparent familiarity.
"Well--my beauty will be disguised."
"That nothing can conceal."
"Oh! do not speak thus, or I shall mistrust you, as I mistrust every oneelse--except my slave Euphrosyne, and Eboracus, and Glyceria the actor'swife. These seem to me the only true persons in the world. I would castmyself on them, but two are slaves and the other is paralyzed. Considernow, Cornelia, do you not understand how that one may reach a condition ofmind or soul, call it which you will, when we become desperate. One mustmake an effort to break away into a new and free and better life, orsuccumb and become bad, and dead to all that is noble and true and good,hard of heart, callous to right and wrong. I am at that point. I know, ifI were to return to _him_, and to be Empress of the Roman world, that Ishould have but one thing to live for--the pride of my place and theblazoning of my position; and to all that which lies deep within me,bleeding, crying out, hungering, and with dry lips--dead."
"My dear lady, you were never made for what you are forced to become."
"Then, why do the Gods thrust me on to a throne that I hate, tie me to aman that I loathe, surround me with a splendor that I despise. Tell mewhy? O Vesta! immaculate Goddess! how I would that I had been as one ofthy consecrated virgins, to spend my days in this sweet house, and pure,peaceful cloister! Do you see? I must away. I am lost to all good--if Iremain. I must away! it is my soul that speaks, that spreads its hands tothee, Cornelia! save me!"
She threw herself on her knees and extended her arms to the Vestal Abbess,caught her dress and kissed it.
Cornelia was deeply moved,
"I beseech you, rise," she said, lifting the kneeling suppliant, claspingher in her arms, and caressing her as a child.
"Hearken to me, Domitia, I can think but of one person that can assist us;that is my cousin Celer. He is a good man, and whatever I desire, he willstrive to execute as a sacred duty. Yet the risk is great."
"I pray you!--I pray you get him to assist me to escape."
"He must furnish you with attendants. It will not be secure for you to beaccompanied by any of your own servants. They might be traced. Celer hasgot a villa. Stay, I will go forth at once and see him. He can givecounsel. Do nothing till my return."
The Vestal Great-Mother left, and Domitia was glad to be alone.
The habitation of the Vestals was wonderfully peaceful, in the midst ofbusy, seething Rome, and in the centre of its greatest movement. Asalready said, it had no windows, and but one door that opened on the outerworld. It drew all its air, all its light, from the patch of sky over thecentral court. Figures o
f Vestals glided about like spirits, and the whitestatues stood ghostlike on their pedestals.
But to be without flowers, without a peristyle commanding a landscape ofgarden and lake and trees and mountains! That was terrible. It would havebeen an unendurable life, but that the Vestal college was possessed ofcountry seats, to which some of the elder of the sisterhood were allowedoccasionally to go and take with them some one or two of the novices.
Although there were no flowers in the quadrangle, there was abundance ofbirds. In and out among the variegated marbles, perching on balustrades,fluttering among the statues, were numerous pigeons, as marbled in tint asthe sculptured stonework, and looking like animated pieces of the same;and a tame flamingo in gorgeous plumage basked himself, then strutted, andon seeing a Vestal approach hopped towards her. When, moreover, the samemaiden drew water from the well, the pigeons came down like a fall of snowabout her, clustering round the bucket to obtain a dip and a drink.
Several hours passed. At length the Abbess returned. She at once soughtDomitia, who rose on her entry. Cornelia took both her hands within herown and said:--
"We women are fools, that is what Celer said, when I told him your plan.As he at once pointed out, it is impossible for you to lie hid anywhere inItaly--and impossible to escape from it, unknown to the Augustus. Any oneendeavoring to assist you to escape would lose his life, most assuredly.'I cannot sell smoke to a clown,' said he bluntly--he is a plain man--'Iwill not put out a finger to assist in such an attempt, which would bringruin on us all. But,' he said, 'this may be done; let the Lady Domitiaretire to one of her own villas, in the country, and commit the matter tothe Vestals. Your entreaty is powerful, and if attended by two of thesisters--or perhaps better alone, for this is not a matter to be madepublic--go to the prince, and plead in the lady's name, that thou feelestunequal to the weight of duties that will now fall on the Augusta, andthat thy health is feeble and thou needest repose and country air--then hemay yield his consent, at least to a temporary retreat.' But my kinsmanCeler advised nothing beyond this. In very truth, nothing else can bedone. Most men's noses are crooked,--he said--and he is a blunt man--andthose who have straight ones do not like to follow them. But in your case,Lady Domitia, there is practically no other way."
"Then I will to Gabii," said Domitia with a sigh. "If he will force meback--there is the lake."
Then, said Cornelia, "Dost thou know that blind-man Messalinus?"
"Full well--he hangs on to the Caesar Domitian, like a leech."
"Since thou didst enter the house of us Vestals, he hath been up and downthe Via Nova and the Sacred Way, never letting this place out of hiseye--blind though he be. Some say he scents as doth a dog, and that is whyhe works his head about from side to side snuffing the wind. When I wentforth he detached two of his slaves to follow--and they went as far asmyself and stood watching outside the door of the knight Celer, and when Icame forth they were still there, and when I returned to the Atrium ofVesta, I found Messalinus peering with his sightless eyes round thecorner. But, I trow, he sees through his servants' eyes."
"He is a bird of ill omen," said Domitia, "a vulture scenting his prey."