"Ed Cryer" <ed@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:g3ot30$t99$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Johannes Patruus" <invalid@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:6ca7rjF3fhu4qU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>> http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20080622/101520.shtml
>>
>> Patruus
>
> Back in Roma antiqua it was a capital offence for a Vestal to break
> her vows of chastity. Punishment; burial alive. And Livy records
> instances of the punishment having been meted out.
>
> Ed
>
It was also pretty dangerous to merely behave a bit (how shall we put it
to our modern liberated British women?) feisty.
This from Livy 4.44
Eodem anno Postumia virgo vestalis de *****u causam dixit, crimine
innoxia, ab suspicione propter cultum amoeniorem ingeniumque liberius
quam virginem decet parum abhorrens.
The same year a vestal virgin, called Postumia, was put on trial for
unchastity. She was found innocent. Suspicion arose because she hadn't
refrained enough from dressing too prettily and displaying mental
qualities more free than becomes a virgin.
Now, this is chivalrous writing from Livy who would have had access to
do***ents and histories from nearer the time. And when you consider how
later historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius delighted in detailing
the ***ual misdemeanours of empresses and their daughters, well, you
have to respect him as a gentleman.
Ed
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