Vesta

c. 700 BCE – 394 CEattested

Rome

• Roman

The hearth itself, tended as a perpetual fire by six priestesses sworn to thirty years of chastity. Letting the flame die was treated as a threat to the city, not an accident.

Known for

• the undying hearth
• the Vestal Virgins
• the state as a household

Dates are estimates. A great deal of what this atlas covers is only datable to within a century.

Credits