" For Vistilia, a
lady born of a Praetorian family, had before the Aediles published herself
a prostitute; upon a custom allowed by our ancestors, who thought that
prostitutes were by thus avowing their infamy, sufficiently punished.
Titidius Labeo too was questioned, that in the manifest guilt of his wife,
he had neglected the punishment prescribed by the law; but he alleged that
the sixty days allowed for consultation were not elapsed; and it was
deemed sufficient to proceed against Vistilia, who was banished to the
Isle of Seriphos. Measures were also taken for exterminating the
solemnities of the Jews and Egyptians; and by decree of Senate four
thousand descendants of franchised slaves, all defiled with that
superstition, but of proper strength and age, were to be transported to
Sardinia; to restrain the Sardinian robbers; and if, through the malignity
of the climate, they perished, despicable would be the loss: the rest were
doomed to depart Italy, unless by a stated day they renounced their
profane rites.
After this Tiberius represented that, to supply the place of Occia, who
had presided seven and fifty years with the highest sanctimony over the
Vestals, another virgin was to be chosen; and thanked Fonteius Agrippa and
Asinius Pollio, that by offering their daughters, they contended in good
offices towards the Commonwealth.
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