Читать книгу Rambles in Rome - S. Russell Forbes - Страница 44

"Numa erected a palace near the Temple of Vesta, called to this day Regia" (Plutarch, "Numa"). Horace (O. i. 2) says: "We see the tawny Tiber, its waves violently forced back from the Tuscan shore, proceed to demolish the monumental Regia (Numæ) and the Temple of Vesta." It was the residence of the Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest, down to the time of Augustus. "Augustus presented the Regia to the Vestal Virgins, because it adjoined their residence" (Dion Cassius, lxv. 27). In the sixteenth century twelve inscriptions relative to the Virgins were found near the church.

Opposite the church, on the level of the Forum, is the round podium of