THE REPUBLICAN ATRIUM VEST. 11 
inside the Atrium Minerva, as suggested by Huelsen,! and of the edes Titi 
inside the Templum Divorum.? The application of the name of Vesta alone 
to the whole Atrium arose naturally from the prominence of her cult among 
the sacra of the state which were centered there.’ 
The Republican Atrium Veste: With the gradual breaking up of the 
simple cult of which the king’s house had been the center, and the growing 
independence of the various priesthoods among which the several religious 
functions of the king had been divided, the necessity arose for the assignment 
to them of distinct official residences. At this time it is probable that the 
parts of the Atrium became independent; for during the later Republic and 
the early Empire, in place of a single complex structure bearing one name, 
there were recognized four separate parts with as many distinct names, two 
of which were, however, those applied earlier to the whole structure. These 
four parts were: (1) the rooms on the north of the temple area, which at 
least after their reconstruction by Domitius Calvinus, in 36 B. C., were 
regarded as a distinct structure, and to which was technically restricted 
the name of Regia; (2) the edes (less correctly called the templum) Vesta; 
(3) the rooms on the south, the Domus Vestalium, to which the name Atrium 
was probably limited;* and (4) the rooms on the east, the Domus publica, 
in which the Pontifex Maximus® continued to live until Augustus on his 
assumption of the priesthood, in 12 B. C.,° transferred the official residence 
to the Palatine.’ The names Atrium Veste and Regia, however, though 
technically restricted to the parts named, were used also in the earlier and 
more general sense.* The /ucus Veste, which covered the space originally 
between the Atrium and the Palatine, yielded place gradually to the new 
buildings, though a small part of it remained until a very late period. 
After the destruction of the whole group of buildings in the fire of Nero,® 
the Atrium was rebuilt on a scale commensurate in size with the other 
buildings of the period and with a different orientation from the earlier 
buildings.” In this reconstruction the Domus publica disappeared wholly. 
5 The rise into prominence of the pontifical power 
was coincident with or followed closely after 
the fall of the kings (Marquardt, Rém. 
1 The Roman Forum, 117. 
2 Jordan, J.c., 111, 565. 
8 A parallel is found in the title of the priestesses. 
Their office was that of the mater familias, 
but from the prominence of the one cult 
among the many committed to them arose 
Staatsverw., 111, 235ff.). The granting of 
the Domus publica to the Pontifex Maximus 
as his official residence occurred probably 
at the same time. 
6 See Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Romer, 69. 
7 Dion Cass., Liv, 27. 
8 By Cicero (ad Att., x, 3), as well as by other 
writers, the name Regia is used for the 
Domus publica. Examples occur also of 
the use of Atrium Veste for the entire group 
of buildings. 
® See p. 5. 
0See plan A. 
the title Virgines Vestales. Cf. Pontifices 
Veste. 
possible that the name Atrium included at 
that time not only the Domus, but also the 
area of the temple. The remains (plan A) 
show that a peculiarly close relationship 
existed between the two parts until the 
destruction of the whole building in the 
first century A. D. After that time the 
Atrium was much less closely connected 
with the temple. 
4Tt is 
