family. Truttidius had an ailing household, though he himself was
always well and never seemed to get any older.

From her talks with Truttidius she came to take a personal
interest in the welfare of the countless tenants in her many
properties in the poorer quarters of the city. She visited some
of them-a sort of approach to modern slumming by the
philanthropic rich. Such actions on the part of a landowner
and such an attitude of mind from any rich person toward the
poor was very unusual in the ancient world. Her behavior in
this regard won Brinnaria a sort of fame among the poor, as
if she were a live goddess moving among them.

She had a healthy love of mere enjoyment too. Except when she
happened to be on duty watching the sacred fire, she never
missed a theatrical performance, a gladiatorial display or an
exhibition of chariot-racing in anyone of the vast race-courses
flanked by tiers of stone-seats, which the Romans called circuses.
At all shows, whether of scenic artists, fighting men or speeding
horses, the Vestals had specified seats, as good as the best.

Besides these formal pleasures, she took great delight in mixing
in society merely for society's sake. Moderns are likely to imagine
that the Vestals of ancient Rome were nuns or something like
nuns. They were nothing of the sort. They were maiden ladies of
wealth and position whose routine duties brought them into
familiar association with all the men important in the Roman
government, hierarchy, nobility and gentry and with their wives
and daughters. They were women of such importance in their
world that their acquaintance was sought by all who had any