Historians have long analyzed how the Roman elite utilized images of ritual instruments to represent their status within the community.1
A coin bearing the simpulum, a ladle used for dipping wine at sacrifices, advertised the moneyer's pontificate and laid claim to the political capital associated with his office, while the lituus, or augur's crook, symbolized the augurate and the prestige of the man who held that priesthood.
As a consequence, modern scholars tend to describe these implements almost entirely as emblems of the priestly elite, rather than as physical objects with an important function in ritual practice.[215] [216] [217] The politicized context in which this religious imagery appeared has also created the impression that certain objects were associated exclusively with a handful of Roman men. In reality, however, women employed many of the same implements used by male priests, as well as others unique to their religious roles within the community.The present study aims to return these ritual objects to the hands of the priestesses who used them. It imagines Roman women as ritual actors asserting their civic identity through the performance of public rituals, including even animal sacrifice.[218] The evidence it presents further undermines a number of long-standing misconceptions about Roman religion, particularly the belief that women were prohibited from sacrificing and the related supposition that the Vestal Virgins were the only women at Rome permitted to serve the gods in an official capacity.[219] Religious ritual, and the implements associated with it, allowed Roman priestesses to maintain the pax deorum (peace of the gods) and the welfare of the city.