eaking. There is no
more fearful sight than this, nor any day when the city is plunged into
deeper mourning. When the litter reaches the appointed spot, the
servants loose her bonds, and the chief priest, after private prayer and
lifting his hands to Heaven before his dreadful duty, leads her out,
closely veiled, places her upon a ladder which leads down into the
subterranean chamber. After this he turns away with the other priests;
the ladder is drawn up after she has descended, and the site of the
chamber is obliterated by masses of earth which are piled upon it, so
that the place looks like any other part of the mound. Thus are the
vestals punished who lose their chastity.

XI. Numa is said to have built the Temple of Vesta, which was to contain
the sacred fire, in a circular form, imitating thereby not the shape of
the earth, but that of the entire universe, in the midst of which the
Pythagoreans place the element of fire, which they call Vesta and the
Unit. The earth they say is not motionless, and not in the centre of its
orbit, but revolves round the central fire, occupying by no means the
first or the most honourable place in the system of the universe. These
ideas are said to have been entertained by Plato also in his old age;
for he too thought that the earth was in a subordinate position, and
that the centre of the universe was occupied by some nobler body.

XII. The Pontifices also explain, to those who inquire of them, the
proper ceremonies at funerals. For Numa taught them not to think that
there was any pollution in death, but that we must pay due honours to
the gods below, because they will receive all that is noblest on earth.
Especially he taught them to honour the goddess Libitina, the goddess
who presides over funeral rites, whether she be Proserpine, or rather
Venus, as the most learned Romans imagine, not unnaturally referring our
birth and our death to the same divinity.

He also defined the periods of mourning, according to the age of the
deceased. He allowed none for a child under three years of age, and for
one older the mourning was only to last as many months as he lived
years, provided those were not more than ten. The longest mourning was
not to continue above ten months, after which space widows were
permitted to marry again; but she that took another husband before that
term was out was obliged by his decree to sacrifice a cow with calf.

Of Numa's many other institutions I shall only