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[Meaning] the priestesses,[1]
... whom Helena the mother of Constantine the Great, after finding the holy and precious cross and raising a church on the tomb of the Lord, proclaimed in writing that the virgins in the precincts of prayer should also be provided with food out of the public [purse]. Having accomplished these things and lived for some eighty years, she died. And her son buried her body in the imperial [tombs] in Rome.[2]
"I would not say that they are hiding anything secret, as the Vestals [hide] the fire."[3]

Hestiades: hai hiereiai, has Helenê hê mêtêr Kônstantinou tou megalou meta to aneurein ta hagia kai timia xula, kai naon anegeirasa en tôi taphôi tou kuriou, tas parthenous en tois euktêriois anagrapsasa sêkois sitêseis te autais ek tou dêmosiou epichorêgeisthai parekeleusato. tauta diapraxamenê kai ogdoêkonta pou biôsasa chronous ton bion metallattei. ho de huios autês en tois kata tên Rhômên basileiois to sôma autês ekêdeusen. ouden aei phaiên aporrêton ti kruptein autous, hôsper tas Hestiadas to pur.

[1] Likewise in ps.-Zonaras (who ignores the rest of the entry). 'Hestiades' -- always plural -- was the Greek term for the Romans' Vestal Virgins; see under alpha 4413, nu 515.
[2] The main part of this entry comes from a biographical source on Helena (epsilon 789), mother of the emperor Constantine the Great (kappa 2284). It is unidentifiable in this precise form, though the final sentence ('Having accomplished etc.') summarizes Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.46.1-47.1. The relative pronoun a(\s connects the passage awkwardly to the apparently unrelated note on the Hestiades.
[3] Synesius, Dion 5.18-19 (PG 66.1128a). Read ou)d’ a)\n fai/hn.

Catharine Roth (modified translation, other cosmetics) on 4 November 2005@20:02:01.
David Whitehead (further tweaks to translation; augmented notes; modified keywords) on 5 November 2005@06:46:59.
David Whitehead (more keywords) on 1 November 2012@05:29:18.
David Whitehead (augmented notes) on 17 February 2016@05:29:57.
Catharine Roth (cosmetics) on 31 December 2017@23:26:13.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation and note) on 1 January 2018@01:30:27.
Catharine Roth (rearranged notes) on 1 January 2018@12:57:42.

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