If you go to the Capitoline Museums, here in Rome, in the Sala degli Orazi e Curiazi of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, your attention will be captured by numerous frescoes entrusted to the Cavalier d'Arpino (late 16th century), and representing iconic moments of the founding myths of Rome. After all, the adjacent rooms also host sixteenth-century frescoes which show, along the lines of what I am about to describe, salient episodes of the culture, tradition and history of the City (as in this case) .

As a local tour guide today I am going to talk about a fresco named "Numa Pompilius establishes the cult of the Vestals and Priests" . First of all who was Numa Pompilius (the man you see on the right, with the long white tunic)? Obviously the almost mythological second King of Rome who, in the 8th century BC, seems to have been the one who, more than anyone, gave new life to the spiritual and religious life of the Romans, establishing numerous priestly cults. Among them, the first was that of the Vestals. They were the sacred priestesses who had to deal with the cult of the goddess Vesta. Very ancient and venerated in many civilizations, Vesta was the elder sister of Zeus, first daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Repeatedly tempted by Apollo and Poseidon, according to the myth she asked Zeus to be preserved forever, maintaining her virginity. Being, therefore, she incorruptible and pure, she was never depicted or represented in any way. Furthermore, precisely because of her purity, Vesta became the Goddess of the hearth for the Romans, the one who, through the sacred fire, stabilized and protected the soil of Rome and of the entire community. On a small scale, in all Roman homes there was the sacred hearth (probably an ancient descendant of primitive communities for which fire was a source of sustenance , protection and survival), to which the pater familias dispensed rituals and magical words . But it was in the temple of Vesta, in the Roman Forum , that the cult of the divinity reached its climax. The Vestals, initially three, were then canonized by Numa Pompilius himself (who had the reputation of being a true sorcerer), who then also established the figure of the Pontifex maximus, the superintendent of all religious practices. Access to the temple of Vesta was barred to everyone, except the pontifex maximus who, however, could not enter the sancta sanctorum of the temple, where only the High Priestess could access. There was the sacred hearth, and there some of Rome's most sacred and powerful relics were kept (such as Athena's Palladium) . In this aura of mysticism, mystery and legend, the Vestals stabilized in a number of 6, chosen with specific and rigorous criteria among young adolescents of patrician families. Their service lasted 30 years (10 years of novitiate, 10 of activity and 10 years for the care and instruction of the novices). Only then were they truly free, even to get married. During their service, in addition to obviously maintaining their virginity (and if this was not respected there were pains...), they officiated at various rites connected to Vesta.

In short, there would still be much to write, but this is already enough to understand how Rome equipped itself with archaic cults, coming from native realities or imported from other peoples. This cultural and spiritual richness also made Rome the Caput Mundi. One might say that it is no coincidence that the moment in which the cult of Vesta and the institution of the Vestal priestesses were abolished is remembered as one of the turning points for the Eternal City. The end of this ancient religious practice marked, more than anything else, the beginning of the new Christian life for Rome. Gregorovius wrote the following: "The Christians of Rome triumphed. Their arrogance reached the point, Zosimos complains, that Serena, wife of Stilicho, entered the temple of Rhea, took the precious necklace from the goddess's neck and put it on herself. Witnessing at this desecration, the last vestal shed desperate tears and cast a curse on Serena and all her descendants that was not lost." Bitter tears over a past that was drawing to a close, towards a new future.