<P> There is archaeological evidence of human sacrifice in Neolithic to Eneolithic Europe . </P> <P> References to human sacrifice can be found in Greek historical accounts as well as mythology . The human sacrifice in mythology, the deus ex machina salvation in some versions of Iphigeneia (who was about to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon) and her replacement with a deer by the goddess Artemis, may be a vestigial memory of the abandonment and discrediting of the practice of human sacrifice among the Greeks in favour of animal sacrifice . </P> <P> In ancient Rome, human sacrifice was infrequent but documented . Roman authors often contrast their own behavior with that of people who would commit the heinous act of human sacrifice . These authors make it clear that such practices were from a much more uncivilized time in the past, far removed . It is thought that many ritualistic celebrations and dedications to gods used to involve human sacrifice, but have now been replaced with symbolic offerings . Dionysius of Halicarnassus says that the ritual of the Argei, in which straw figures were tossed into the Tiber river, may have been a substitute for an original offering of elderly men . Cicero claims that puppets thrown from the Pons Suplicius by the Vestal Virgins in a processional ceremony were substitutes for the past sacrifice of old men . After the Roman defeat at Cannae, two Gauls and two Greeks in male - female couples were buried under the Forum Boarium, in a stone chamber used for the purpose at least once before . In Livy's description of these sacrifices, he distances the practice from Roman tradition and asserts that the past human sacrifices evident in the same location were "wholly alien to the Roman spirit ." The rite was apparently repeated in 113 BCE, preparatory to an invasion of Gaul . They buried both the Greeks and the two Gauls alive as a plea to the Gods to save Rome from destruction at the hands of Hannibal . When the Romans conquered the Celts in Gaul, they tortured the people by cutting off their hands and feet and leaving them to die . The Romans justified their actions by also accusing the Celts of practicing human sacrifice . </P> <P> According to Pliny the Elder, human sacrifice was banned by law during the consulship of Publius Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus in 97 BCE, although by this time it was so rare that the decree was largely symbolic . The Romans also had traditions that centered around ritual murder, but which they did not consider to be sacrifice . Such practices included burying unchaste Vestal Virgins alive and drowning hermaphroditic children . These were seen as reactions to extraordinary circumstances as opposed to being part of Roman tradition . Vestal Virgins who were accused of being unchaste were put to death, and a special chamber was built to bury them alive . This aim was to please the gods and restore balance to Rome . Human sacrifices, in the form of burying individuals alive, were not uncommon during times of panic in ancient Rome . However, the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins was also practiced in times of peace . Their chasteness was thought to be a safeguard of the city, and even in punishment the state of their bodies was preserved in order to maintain the peace . </P>

The vestal virgins were associated with the prosperity of which civilization