VESTA, AEDICULA, ARA
* a shrine which Augustus, after becoming pontifex
maximus, built close to or within his own house on the Palatine, and
dedicated 28th April, 12 B.C. (Ov.
Fast. iv. 951;
Met. xv. 864; Fast. Caer.
Praen. ad iv Kal. Mai, CIL is. p. 213, 236; and possibly Cass.
Dio liv.
27. 3; cf. CIL i². p. 317). It is regarded as probable that a Palladium was
kept within this temple (cf. coins with Vesta and Palladium, Stevenson,
Dictionary of Roman Coins, 854-855), referred to in an inscription of
the fourth century from Privernum (
CIL x. 6441:
praepositus palladii
Palatini),
1 and that this temple became in time more important than
that in the forum (WR 76, 156). No certain traces of it have been
found, and its location is uncertain. Some sixteenth century drawings
(Dosio, Florence, Uffizi 2039) have been thought to represent this round
temple on the Palatine (
BC 1883, 198-202 ;
GA 1888, 151-152 ; Altm. 72),
but this view has been vigorously combated by Hulsen (
Mitt. 1895, 28-37;
HJ 76-77), on apparently good grounds. See also
JRS 1914, 211;
1919, 180.
