The Vestal Nun: The Afterlife and Reception of Vestal Virgins in Art and Literature in Late Antiquity and After

The article presents the figure of the consecrated virgin, as it appears in the writings of Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo. It also offers a contextual synthesis of the conditions of women in Late Antiquity, both in civil society, presenting the women as uxor, the situation of the Vestal Virgins, as well as the women’s stituation within the Christian communities. Later a summary of the main Latin patristic writings on virginity is made, to analyze and compare in more detail, Saint Ambrose’s De Virginibus and Saint Augustine’s De sancta Virginitate.

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Pagans and Christians in Late Ancient Rome

Melania the Younger ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190888220.003.0004 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 61-75

Author(s):

Elizabeth A. Clark

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Late Antiquity ◽

Fourth Century ◽

Upper Class ◽

Life Change ◽

Ancient Rome ◽

Recent Scholarship ◽

Vestal Virgins

Chapter 4 explores the meaning of “pagan” in late antiquity, debates over its use today, and the meaning and progress of Christianization. Recent controversies over “conversion” and the pace of Christianization, especially among the senatorial aristocracy, have called into question mid-twentieth-century claims that there was an ardent “pagan revival” among aristocrats at the end of the fourth century. Some key elements in that controversy involved the removal of the altar of the goddess Victory from the senate house and the fate of the Vestal Virgins. The chapter details later imperial rulings against pagan practices from the 390s onward. Recent scholarship questions whether conversion to Christianity entailed a radical life change for upper-class Romans. The growth of the number and role of bishops is noted. Christianity’s charity operations were probably a factor in winning some to the new faith. Soon, “heresy” would become a more pressing concern to bishops and some emperors than the occasional “pagan” practitioner.

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