ROMAN REMAINS IN BATH. 85 



Eufus and Victor in their short notes, conceming the 

 structures of Rome. . . In this very quarter is still 

 Standing a decagon structure. . . Thus the whole con- 

 sists of ten sides, in one of which is a door, as in the other 

 nine there were so many niches, the greater part of them 

 still Standing, and all of them (as Montfau^on supposes) 

 fiimished with so many Images of deities. . . Such as 

 this we believe was once our Temple of Minerva at Bath." 

 There is also another remark of Whitaker s well worthy 

 attention. A Temple of Vesta stiU remains, where it stood 

 in the days of Horace, which is a Rotunda, like the Pan- 

 theon. In this was kept a fire continually buming, similar 

 to what Solinus relates of the temple at Bath. All the 

 round temples of lieathenism had an opening in the centre 

 above ; but that of Vesta, as Ovid attests, had this open- 

 ing closed with a casement, from regard assuredly to the 

 sacred fire burning immediately under the opening. The 

 temple of Minerva at Bath, therefore, by analogy, had 

 an opening in the centre of the roof, that was closed by a 

 casement, to protect the fire below. The altar bearmg the 

 fire, says Whitaker, we believe remains to this very day. 

 The earliest mention of this temple is more than two cen- 

 turies later than Agricola. 



The uninscribed remains which are placed in the Vesti- 

 büle of the Institution, conslst of the base part of the 

 shaft and capltal of a Corinthian column, fluted and cabled, 

 many fi-agments of the tympanum of a pediment, suffi- 

 cient to indicate the entlre design, and a great collection 

 of pieces richly carved. (The capltal, and other portions, 

 are engraved in Lysons.) 



Solinus, in a remarkable passage of hls " Polyhistor," 

 or, as he hlmself caUs his work, " Collectanea Rerum 

 Memorabilium," c. 25, has informed us that there was a 



