Note 42 — Chapter I · THE KING OF THE WOOD

Notizie degli Scavi, 1885, p. 478; O. Rossbach, op. cit. p. 158; G. H. Wallis, Illustrated Catalogue, pp. 9 sq. The true character of this circular basement was first pointed out by Mr. A. B. Cook (Classical Review, xvi. (1902) p. 376). Previous writers had taken it for an altar or a pedestal. But the mosaic pavement and the bases of two columns which were found in position on it exclude the hypothesis of an altar and cannot easily be reconciled with that of a pedestal, for which, moreover, it appears to be too large. A rain-water gutter runs round it and then extends in the direction of the larger temple. As to the temple of Vesta at Rome see J. H. Middleton, The Remains of Ancient Rome, i. 297 sq.; O. Richter, Topographie der Stadt Rom² (Munich, 1902), pp. 88 sq.; G. Boni, in Notizie degli Scavi, May 1900, pp. 159 sqq.