A girl selected to serve as a Vestal virgin had to be the daughter of living, freeborn, Romans whose reputations were beyond reproach. As Tacitus notes, the divorce of Fonteius Agrippa from the girl’s mother was enough to exclude his daughter from the priesthood (Ann. 2.86).

Additional qualifications for a prospective Vestal virgin included being mentally sound, physically unblemished, and between the ages of six and ten.