Our own times furnish us with an instance of a ceremony from which all
women are carefully excluded;[2] but the Roman ladies, in performing the
rites sacred to the good goddess, were even more afraid of the men than
our masons are of women; for we are told by some authors, that so
cautious were they of concealment, that even the statutes and pictures
of men and other male animals were hood-winked with a thick veil. The
house of the consul, though commonly so large that they might have been
perfectly secured against all intrusion in some remote apartment of it,
was obliged to be evacuated by all male animals, and even the consul
himself was not suffered to remain in it. Before they began their
ceremonies, every corner and lurking place in the house was carefully
searched, and no caution omitted to prevent all possibility of being
discovered by impertinent curiosity, or disturbed by presumptive
intrusion. But these cautions were not all the guard that was placed
around them; The laws of the Romans made it death for any man to be
present at the solemnity.
Such being the precautions, and such the penalties for insuring the
secrecy of this ceremony, it was only once attempted to be violated,
though it existed from the foundation of the Roman empire till the
introduction of Christianity; and this attempt was made, not so much
perhaps with a view to be present at the ceremony, as to fulfil an
assignation with a mistress. Pompeia, the wife of Caesar, having been
suspected of a criminal correspondence with Claudius, and so closely
watched that she could find no opportunity of gratifying her passion, at
last, by the means of a female slave, settled an assignation with him at
the celebration of the rites of the good goddess. Claudius was directed
to come in the habit of a singing girl, a character he could easily
personate, being young and of a fair complexion. As soon as the slave
saw him enter, she ran to inform her mistress. The mistress eager to
meet her lover, immediately left the company and threw herself into his
arms, but could not be prevailed upon by him to return so soon as he
thought necessary for their mutual safety; upon which he left her, and
began to take a walk through the rooms, always avoiding the light as
much as possible. While he was thus walking by himself, a maid servant
accosted him, and desired him to sing; he took no notice of her, but she
followed and urging him so closely, that he was at last obliged to
speak. His voice betrayed his sex; the maid servant shrieked, and
running into the room where the rites were performing, told that a man
was in the house. The women in the utmost consternation, threw a veil
ever the mysteries, ordered the doors to be secured, and with lights in
their hands, ran about the house searching for the sacrilegious
intruder. They found him in the apartment of the slave who had admitted
him, drove him out with ignominy, and, though it was in the middle of
the night immediately dispersed, to give an account to their husbands of
what had happened. Claudius was soon after accused of having profaned
the holy rites; but the populace declaring in his favor, the judges,
fearing an insurrection, were obliged to acquit him.
[2] Masonry