Kitap 1
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Now the Vestal is said to be taken, it appears, because she is grasped by the hand of the chief pontiff and led away from the parent under whose control she is, as if she had been taken in war. In the first book of Fabius Pictor's History Fr. 4, Huschke; 1, Bremer. the formula is given which the chief pontiff should use in choosing a Vestal. It is this: I take thee, Amata, as one who has fulfilled all the legal requirements, to be priestess of Vesta, to perform the rites which it is lawful for a Vestal to perform for the Roman people, the Quirites.
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Now, many think that the term taken ought to be used only of a Vestal. But, as a matter of fact, the flamens of Jupiter also, as well as the augurs, were said to be taken. Lucius Sulla, in the second book of his Autobiography, Fr. 2, Peter. wrote as follows: Publius Cornelius, the first to receive the surname Sulla, was taken to be flamen of Jupiter. Marcus Cato, in his accusation of Servius Galba, says of the Lusitanians: The title of the oration is variously given as Contra Servium Galbam and Pro Direptis Lusitanis; perhaps the two titles were combined in one. See Jordan's Cato, p. 27. Yet they say that they wished to revolt. I myself at the present moment wish a thorough knowledge of the pontifical law; shall I therefore be taken as chief pontiff? If I wish to understand the science of augury thoroughly, shall anyone for that reason take me as augur?
