The Temple of Vesta and the Vestals, Guardians of Rome's Fire

In the heart of the Roman Forum, between the Regia and the priestesses' house, stand the remains of a small circular temple. Here burned the fire of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, which the Romans believed was bound to the very survival of the city. It was guarded by the Vestals, six virgin priestesses who enjoyed exceptional honours and risked terrible penalties. Their cult spanned more than a thousand years of history, from its legendary origins until the end of the fourth century.

A fire that must never go out

The Temple of Vesta was round, perhaps in memory of the ancient huts of Latium. Inside there was no statue of the goddess, only the perpetual fire. Ovid, in the Fasti, says so plainly: «nec tu aliud Vestam quam vivam intellege flammam», understand Vesta as nothing but living flame. The fire was renewed every year on the first of March, the day that opened the ancient Roman year.

In a secret part of the temple, the penus, sacred objects were kept that only the Vestals could see. Among them, according to tradition, was the Palladium, an ancient statuette of Pallas that Aeneas was said to have brought from Troy and on which Rome's safety depended. The building burned several times; the present remains date from the rebuilding ordered by Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus, and were partly reassembled in the 1930s.

The virgin priestesses

According to tradition, the cult was organised by King Numa Pompilius. The Vestals were chosen as girls, between six and ten years old, by the pontifex maximus, and served for thirty years: ten to learn, ten to officiate, ten to teach. They lived in the House of the Vestals, a large residence beside the temple, where the bases of the statues dedicated to the chief Vestals can still be seen.

They enjoyed privileges rare for Roman women: they could make a will, were escorted by a lictor and had seats of honour at the games. But if the fire went out they were punished, and one who broke her vow of chastity was buried alive in an underground chamber near the Colline Gate. Even the mother of Romulus and Remus, Rhea Silvia, was a Vestal according to myth.

The end of a thousand-year cult

At the end of the fourth century the emperor Theodosius issued laws against pagan cults, and around 394 the fire of Vesta was extinguished and the order of the Vestals abolished. The historian Zosimus tells that Serena, the emperor's niece, took a necklace from a statue of the Great Mother and was cursed by an old Vestal, the last one still there. The tale reflects how dramatically that ending was perceived.

A common misunderstanding is also worth noting: the round temple in the Forum Boarium and the one at Tivoli are often called temples of Vesta, but the former was dedicated to Hercules Victor and the latter's attribution is uncertain. The true sanctuary of the Roman fire is the one in the Forum, where the cult had its political and religious centre.

Before the few columns of the Temple of Vesta one can imagine the flame that for centuries was the symbolic heart of Rome. The cult of the Vestals shows how much the city entrusted its safety to daily acts of guardianship, and how closely ancient religion was interwoven with civic and political life.