Rome is on most people’s bucket list, and those who have been there will most certainly feel as privileged as I feel now to have visited this great city where empires were built by those who ruled over them. My imagination embarked upon a visual journey of what the great architects and artists created, which is still there to see today around every corner. Just when you think you have seen it all there will be something else to surprise you. Archaeologists are still finding things that they never knew existed. In fact in 2014 Rome became 200 years older. Whilst excavating the floor of the Forum they found remains dating back to times before Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who, according to legend, founded Rome in 753 BC. No one knows what is yet to be found in one of the oldest settlements in the world.
Onwards and upwards, to the Palatine Hill and The House of the Vestals, the home of the Vestal Virgins whose duty it was to ensure the wellbeing of Rome. To have this honour bestowed upon them the girls had to be the cream of the crop .They had to be completely free of both mental and physical ailments. Coming from a family of free born residents of Rome, both parents had to be alive for the girl to become a Vestal Virgin. The girls were selected as young as 6 and taken to the Vestals House to begin their training. They had to remain virgins for 30 years. This was a religious order, set up around 717–673 BC and full of what we would call Pagan rituals, centuries before the birth of Christ. These girl were from the higher echelons of society, allowed to vote, own a house, have money, make a will, and go to all the social events and games, with equal rights to that of a man. What would they have to do for these privileges? Easy! Keep order in the House, keep all the idols clean, with the offerings freshly put out and carry out the ceremonial rituals to whichever god or goddess was to be honoured. They had to collect water from the sacred spring and carry it back to the house for their own use as well as for use during rituals. A further important duty was to tend the Vestal’s sacred fire since it could never go out. This was where anyone from Rome could go and get a flame for their homes. Oh and don’t forget the no sex part! That was very important, as the punishment for loss of virginity was the worse you could ever imagine. Now you have the background of a Vestal Virgin, a modern socialite with benefits and a pension, not a bad job to do for 30 years, and perhaps a fair sacrifice in a world where survival was so uncertain. Surely these girls were looked up to as if they were goddesses. But then my mind started to question whether life was truly as good as our guide had mapped out for these girls? After all it was darkest times of Rome, a time where you could legally stab someone in the back just for looking at you, a place where no one was safe. So what if….what if the next priestess in line, wasn’t who the other Vestal Virgins wanted to be priestess. What if the one under her was prettier, smarter? Would she be killed, would someone make up lies about her just to denounce her? It’s hard to think that it wouldn’t be so, isn’t it? But hold on! One of the rules is that their blood can’t be spilt, so they are all safe from being killed surely? No not at all! If a Vestal Virgin is neglectful of her duties – for example, if she hasn’t swept the floor that day- she can merely be beaten. But if it has been found that a virgin had compromised her chastity then she was far from safe, as this was punishable by death. The penalty was being buried alive. I also vaguely remember back in history lessons at school something a teacher said about the Roman Emperors, who believed themselves to be equal to the gods. They believed that the gods told them what they should do, and therefore no one should question whatever they commanded. So with that in mind and surrounded by such beauty of the Vestal Virgins, what would stop them from doing whatever they desired with a Vestal Virgin, claiming that the gods had told them to? Would she argue with or question such powerful men? I don’t know and dare I say, no one will ever know for sure. These were just my thoughts as I listened to the guide and my mind wandered to the “what ifs” of Roman times.
The Pantheon, last but not least. Yet another grand building now nestling in the back streets amid shops and restaurants, and by the way a great place for a lazy lunch in between the hectic rush to attempt pack in all that Rome has to offer. The Pantheon is a building dedicated to all the gods, with its dome created to resemble the opened heavens. The first thing that strikes you is that the ceiling is built with a hole in the centre. Come on be honest – how many of you, like me, thought it must be there to let out the smoke from the fires? No, wrong again! Although Rome had some of the best architects the world has ever seen in the years 10 BC and maybe even earlier, the problem they had was that they couldn’t work out how to close the lid, so to speak. To build a complete dome needed more skill than they could imagine so the answer was to leave the hole which is vital for the support of the structure, which also make a dramatic impression. The splendour of a great dome draws your eye upwards to where the light floods in bouncing off the marble that adorns the walls and floor, giving the impression that nothing can be seen but the Heavens above. Ingenious to say the least. This building truly brings the outside in, in order to make the gods feel closer.
The inscription reads as follows:
PIVS · VII · P · M · AN · PONTIFICATVS · SVI · XXIII ·
AREAM · ANTE · PANTHEON · M · AGRIPPAE IGNOBILIBVS · TABERNIS
DEMOLITIONE · PROVIDENTISSIMA
AB · INVISA · DEFORMITATE · VINDICAVIT
ET · IN · LIBERVM · LOCI · PROSPECTVM · PATERE · IVSSIT
Pius VII Supreme Pontiff, in the 23rd Year of His Pontificate the 23rd, freed the area of the Pantheon of Marcus Agrippa
of ignoble eateries and detestable deformity by undertaking a very thoughtful program of demolition to provide an unobstructed view of the site.
While I was sitting at the bar outside on a sunny evening after my visit to the Pantheon, sipping my spritzer, and imagining what life might have been like, I was abruptly brought back to earth by a street vendor trying to sell me a folding wood fruit bowl. After I told him that I didn’t want to buy anything I looked around the square, observing tourists from all over the world clicking their cameras and Roman citizens going about their daily business .Then it struck me- there in the crowds were the street vendors, selling anything they could for whatever price they could get, beggars sitting on the floor with paper cups asking for money, the pick pockets or bag snatchers waiting for the opportune moment to get some easy cash, (because yes Rome is full of opportunists). The only thing that was missing was the stench of poverty, and the rotting flesh of the dead that I imagine would have been left in the streets. So now my darkest Rome has just become a reflection of the Rome of today. The problems are still there despite the urban cleansing in the early 19th century. Unless the problems can be resolved you will always have unauthorised sellers, pickpockets, thieves, and beggars, and this is true of any city in all corners of the world.
Being an erotic writer of BDSM I would not like to have lived in my Ancient Rome. Trust is vital in my world and in my books and I could never live where people could not trust each other one hundred percent and where eyes in the back of your head would have been very useful. There were undoubtedly backstabbers everywhere, and for most Romans who met their end by a dagger, either verbally or literally, the backstabber was someone they believed to be their friend.
Beware the Ides of March
