Tacitus, Annals, 15.20­-23, 33­-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a

et motu terrae celebre Campaniae oppidum Pompei magna ex parte
Pompe(i)i, ~orum is a second declension masculine plural noun,
here standing in apposition to celebre Campaniae oppidum, the subject of
the sentence. This earthquake, which Seneca, in his Natural Histories 6.1.2,
dates to AD 63, predated the famous eruption of Vesuvius in 79 during
the reign of Titus, which totally destroyed Pompeii and the neighbouring
city of Herculaneum. Hence there is a proleptic point in magna ex parte:
Tacitus and his readers would of course have read this passage with the
later catastrophe in mind, turning the earthquake mentioned here into
an ominous prefiguration of greater evil to come, though not specifically
related to the reign of Nero (but easily relatable to the imminent fall of the
first dynasty of Caesars). Seismic activity has natural causes but frequently
features the same temporal logic as prodigies, insofar as a minor tremor or
eruption – at times many years in advance – is then followed by a cataclysmic
outbreak. Likewise, prodigies constituted a preliminary indication of
divine displeasure that issued a warning of an imminent disaster (but also
afforded a precious window of opportunity to make amends, appease
the gods, and thus avert it). The Romans understood extreme natural
events as divinely motivated signs, but were unaware of – or refused to
believe in – the ineluctability of natural disasters such as earthquakes or
volcanic eruptions; they preferred to invest in the conviction that proper
communication with the gods constituted some safeguard against crises
and chaos. But is that so different from contemporary religious creeds?
The scale of the destruction was already immense
and hints at the violence of the quake.
The Vestal Virgins (six at any one
time, who, upon entering the college, took a vow of chastity and stayed
in position for thirty years or until they died) were priestesses of Vesta,
the Roman goddess of the hearth. Devoted in the main to the cultivation
of the sacred fire, which was not supposed to go out since it symbolized
the eternity of the Roman state, they were associated with the well-being
of the Roman commonwealth and its continuity in time. Any change in
personnel owing to a premature death or other event affecting the smooth
functioning of the college therefore amounted to an affair of state. Laelia
was perhaps the daughter of D. Laelius Balbus. 101
101 Laelia is Nr. 2161 in Jörg Rüpke’s compendium of all religious officials from ancient
Rome of whom we have any record. See Rüpke (2008).