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230 - Richard Rohlin - Universal History: The Bridegroom and the Scapegoat

The Symbolic World

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The Vestal Virgins Are Important to Understanding Rome's Identity

When a new roman king was made he would be brought through the gate of the city, up to the city's high place. The marriage would be consummated on the capitaline hill. This this caused a kind of relationship where,. even though it was like a totally platonic or like, totally celibate thing, a, where the king was sort of Ritually married to the vestal virgins. And so you could see how augustus is basically calling himself the husband of rome without ever becoming the king itself.

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