ABSTRACT
Valerius’ contemporary, the historian Velleius Paterculus, ends his history with a dramatic uotum, and begs divine protection for Rome, naming various traditional gods, but ending with an emotional invocation of “Vesta, guardian of Rome’s eternal fires” (perpetuorumque custos Vesta ignium; 2.131.1).2
Even Warde Fowler confesses that “far more than any other cult, that of Vesta represents the reality and continuity of Roman religious feeling.”3
Augustus too had been generous to Vesta.4 Vesta had long done good service for Rome, and was Rome’s chaste mother or Vesta mater.5
