HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 5 
period to the Domus publica. All of these restorations and additions are, 
so far as can now be determined,’ antecedent to the fire of Nero. It is 
certain that at that time the whole precinct was swept by the flames.? Had 
the Atrium survived the calamity, there would be traces remaining of the 
restorations necessitated by it. Since, as we have said, no such traces are 
to be found, the final destruction of the earlier building can not have been 
subsequent to that event. The later building also, which was erected in its 
place—which we have called the first imperial Atrium—though it suffered 
at least twice from fire, shows no evidence of any such complete restoration 
as would have been necessary had it been built before and passed through 
the great fire. We may conclude, therefore, that the earlier building, the 
republican Atrium, was destroyed in the fire of Nero and that the first 
imperial Atrium, by which it was replaced, was erected at some time sub- 
‘sequent to it. We know that at the time of the death of Galba, in 69 A. D.,* 
the precinct of Vesta was recognized as a place of refuge and that the temple 
and certain of the less important rooms connected with it were already built. 
At that time, therefore, the Atrium must have been in large part completed, 
since the continual attendance of the Vestals upon the temple-fire made it 
necessary that, with the restoration of the regular temple cult, they resume 
their residence inside the precinct’ The half-year between the death of Nero 
and that of Galba would have been insufficient for the carrying out of the 
whole work;’ the reconstruction of the Atrium as well as of the temple® 
must, then, have been begun, if not finished, by the former.’ The arguments 
presented are, as it seems to me, sufficient in themselves to warrant the 
acceptance of the first imperial Atrium as the work of Nero. This conclusion 
is, however, made more certain by the evidence of the walls themselves, 
which are identical in material and in methods of construction with those 
universally recognized as belonging to his time.® 
1 The restorations and additions belong in large ‘Plut., Galba, 27. Tac., Hist., 1, 43; Piso in 
part to the Domus publica. Of these new 
walls but one type is uncertain. Although 
no decision can now be reached concerning 
its date, in no case need it be held to be 
later than the early part of the reign of Nero. 
For further discussion, see pp. 12-14. 
7 Tac. Ann., XV, 41. 
3 As filling for the concrete foundations of this 
period, rare marbles have been used in ap- 
preciable quantities. Before their abandon- 
ment to such a use, these marbles must have 
been rendered worthless for other purposes 
by the destruction of the earlier buildings 
in which they had been used. Before the 
rise of the new city of Augustus, imported 
marbles were almost unknown. After that 
period no destruction befell the Atrium or 
the buildings adjacent to it until the fire of 
Nero. The first imperial Atrium must, 
therefore, have been erected after that 
calamity. 
adem Veste pervasit, exceptusque misers- 
cordia publici servi et contubernio eius ab- 
TNO 6.9 Gibb protractus Piso in foribus 
templi trucidatus est. 
5 The coins of Galba (Cohen, Galba, 309-314, 364, 
367, 404, 432), as well as those of Vitellius 
(Cohen, Vitellius, 89-91), afford evidence of 
their continuance of the work. 
6 Owing to the importance of the cult, neglect 
to rebuild the temple would hardly have 
escaped the notice of the historians. 
7H. Dressel (Zeitschr. fiir Numismatik, xx, 23, 
n. 3) holds that the temple was only planned 
by Nero, but built at a later time. The evi- 
dence of the coins is not in harmony with 
this conclusion; for, though the variants in 
type are not numerous, the coins represent 
a number of issues. For example, the three 
gold coins in the British Museum, though 
of one type, are from three different issues. 
8 See pp. 19-20. 
