in ancient Rome, was the punishment of a vestal who violated her vow of chastity. The unhappy priestess was scourged, was attired like a corpse, and then let down into a vault containing some bread, water, milk, oil, a burning lamp, and a couch. Earth was then cast upon her till the pit was filled up. Her paramour was scourged to death in the Forum. Some middle-age writers seem to make burying alive the punishment of a female thief.