In the centre of the peristylium, just coming to the surface and
occupying the whole of the width of the open court, are the
foundations of an octagonal edifice in brick, with ribs running from
the angles to a central circle. Here, doubtless, was the shrine in
which was kept the Sacred Palladium, or fatal token of the empire of
the Romans. "Fatale pignus imperii Romani" (Livy, xxvi. 27). "Kept
under the safeguard of Vesta's temple" (_ibid._ v. 52). This was a
statuette of "Minerva, by no male beheld" (Lucan, ix. 994). "The
Vestals alone were permitted to behold the Trojan Minerva" (_ibid._ i.
598). "That fell from heaven" (Dionysius, ii. 67). It seems it was
originally kept in the Temple of Vesta itself (Pliny, vii. 45; Ovid,
"T." iii. 1, 39).
"The sacred image of Minerva, to which the Romans pay uncommon
veneration, and which, as they say, was brought from Troy, was exposed
to public view (during the fire of 192), so that the men of our age
beheld the Palladium, never seen by any before since the time it came
from Ilium into Italy. For the Vestal Virgins laid hold on it in the
hurry and confusion, and carried it openly through the Sacred Way into
the Imperial Palace" (Herodian, in "Commodus").
"Elagabalus, wanting a wife for his sun-god, sent for the sacred image
of Pallas, which the Romans worship in secret from human eyes, and had
it brought into his own bed-room. Thus he dared to displace the
Palladium, that had never been moved since the time it came from
Ilium, except when the temple was destroyed by fire, and they conveyed
the goddess into the Imperial Palace" (_ibid._ in "Antoninus;"
Lampridius, in "Elagabalus," iii.).
Fragments of a statuette of Minerva were found in the excavations.