The election of a Vestel Virgin by The Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. To be allowed entry into the order, a girl had to be free of physical and mental defects, have two living parents and be a daughter of a free-born resident of Rome. The Vestals or Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. From Hutchinson's History of the Nations, published 1915.

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