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.