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of the Regia. It was here that his sacred spears were kept,53 and
Jordan even goes so far as to assume that he was the protecting
deity of the place. H However this may be, Ovid's expression
in l11ugni I avis aede is a curious term in view of the nature of
the building and the variety of divinities there worshipped, and
perhaps we have already sufficient reason for concluding that the
Regia had nothing whatever to do with the sacra I dulia. But
before convicting Ovid of making so gross an error as saying that
the offering was burned at an aedes, if the entire ceremony really
took place out-of-doors, I should like to present an elaborate mass
of testimony based on two lines of the Fasti themselves. In II,
69-70, Ovid is discussing sacrifices made on February 1 at three
places. The lines are:
"Ad penetrale Numae Capitolinumque Tonantem
Inque Iovis summa caeditur arce bidens."
I shall first enter into a rather lengthy discussion to prove
penetrale Numac equal to "Regia."
V.
H. Peter in his edition of the Fasti o " understands penetrale
NU11Iae a a reference to the Atrium Vestae in its restricted
sense, the building utilized as the dwelling of the Vestals; for he
interprets Fasti VI, 263-4, as meaning that Numa lived in the
Domus Vestalium and not in the Regia. The words are:
"Hie locus exiguus qui sustinet atria Vestae
Tunc erat intonsi regia magna Numae."
Regia he takes in the general sense of "palace."
There is reason to believe, however, that the Romans employed
the terms Atrium Vestae and Regia interchangeably, and even that
the two were at the outset parts of one and the same building.
Let us examine the evidence set forth by Dr. Esther Boise Van
Deman in her monograph, The Atrium Vestae.
The architectural history of the Atrium of the Republic
"extends from the early republican or even the regal period to that
• Gell. IV, 6; Wiss., p. 502 and n. 5.
It I, 2, pp. 424-5.
• Notes on II, 69 and VI, 257 sqq.; also critical note on VI, 263 sqq.