Vesta, Vestals
Vesta, VestalsVesta was the Roman goddess of (the hearth-) fire, custos flammae (Ovid Fasti 6. 258, comm. F. Bömer), one of the twelve di consentes. The cult is also known from Pompeii and Latium: it was believed to have been introduced into Rome by Pompilius Numa—or Romulus—from Alba Longa (Dionysius Halicarnassius Antiquitates Romanae 2. 64. 5ff.; Servius on Aeneid 1. 273). An ancient etymology linked Vesta to Greek Hestia (Cicero De natura deorum 2. 67): her cult expressed and guaranteed Rome's permanence. Vesta's main public shrine, never inaugurated certis verbis and so never a true templum (temple), was a circular building just south-east of Augustus' arch in the forum Romanum (the original 7th-cent. bc shape is unknown). In the late republic its form was taken to be that of a primitive house, intimating a connection...
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