05-12-2008, 05:27 PM
I think an awful lot of people are of the opinion that some kind of fire would be there in some form or other, and when we think that it was the Emperor who could beat the Vestal Virgins for letting the eternal flame go out the general consensus may be correct. If we think of the Goddess Vesta she was the deity of the hearth and the home and when Pater Familia was at war, Mater familia and the older children were tending the fields, it was the job of the youngest daughter being a virgin? to keep the fire going to ward off evil spirits from the door. In my long years of being in the military there was the thing called delegation of responsibility, where one guy in a century or maniple would be given the job of lighting a fire and the whole Cohort would share however outside of that Cohort you b..8@er off and find your own.
Brian Stobbs
