The Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum

Abstract

The Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum has long interested scholars because of the priestesses, the Vestal Virgins, who served in it. Their duty to constantly tend the fire of the state, the societal privileges that they enjoyed and most Roman women did not, and above all their vow of physical chastity, have sparked the imaginations of modern investigators. The uniqueness of Vesta’s cult and priestesses, having little subsequent parallel, has caused her small circular-based temple to be studied independently from other structures in the Forum, with the exception of the Regia, whose connection with Vesta’s Temple has long been noted. However, a trip to the Forum reveals that the location of Vesta’s temple, roughly centered in the Forum and seated in close proximity to both the Regia and Juturna’s small rectangular fountain, is far from being an isolated structure. This paper posits that the shape and location of Vesta’s temple were equally important: the circular shape of her temple both mirrored the shape of the cosmos, and complemented the adjacent, rectangular Fountain of Juturna. Its location between the Regia and Fountain of Juturna displayed the tension between sovereignty and subjugation