§2.65.1τὴν γοῦν ἵδρυσιν τοῦ ἱεροῦ Ῥωμύλῳ τινὲς ἀνατιθέασι τῶν ἀμηχάνων νομίζοντες εἶναι πόλεως οἰκιζομένης ὑπʼ ἀνδρὸς ἐμπείρου μαντικῆς μὴ κατασκευασθῆναι πρῶτον ἑστίαν κοινὴν τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ταῦτα ἐν Ἄλβᾳ τοῦ κτίστου τραφέντος, ἐν ᾗ παλαιὸν ἐξ οὗ τὸ τῆς θεᾶς ταύτης ἱερὸν ἱδρυμένον ἦν, καὶ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ θυηπόλου γενομένης τῇ θεῷ·
At any rate, some attribute the foundation of the temple to Romulus, thinking it to be among the impossible things that, when a city was being founded by a man experienced in divination, a common hearth for the city should not be established first; and this especially since the founder was brought up in Alba, in which from of old the temple of this goddess had been established, and his mother had been a priestess to the goddess.
διαιρούμενοί τε διχῇ τὰ ἱερὰ καὶ τὰ μὲν αὐτῶν κοινὰ ποιοῦντες καὶ πολιτικά, τὰ δὲ ἴδια καὶ συγγενικά, διʼ ἄμφω ταῦτά φασι πολλὴν ἀνάγκην εἶναι τῷ Ῥωμύλῳ ταύτην σέβειν τὴν θεόν.
And dividing the sacred rites into two parts, making some of them common and public, and others private and familial, they say that for both these reasons there was a great necessity for Romulus to worship this goddess.
§2.65.2οὔτε γὰρ ἀναγκαιότερον ἀνθρώποις οὐδὲν εἶναι τῆς κοινῆς ἑστίας οὔτε τῷ Ῥωμύλῳ κατὰ διαδοχὴν γένους οὐδὲν οἰκειότερον προγόνων μὲν ὑπάρχοντι τῶν ἐξ Ἰλίου τὰ τῆς θεᾶς ἱερὰ μετενεγκαμένων, μητρὸς δὲ ἱερείας.
For nothing is more necessary to men than a common hearth, and nothing was more familiar to Romulus by inheritance of race, since he had ancestors among those who brought the sacred objects of the goddess from Ilium, and a mother who was a priestess.
ἐοίκασι δʼ οἱ διὰ ταῦτα τὴν ἵδρυσιν τοῦ ἱεροῦ Ῥωμύλῳ μᾶλλον ἀνατιθέντες ἢ Νόμᾳ, τὸ μὲν κοινὸν ὀρθῶς λέγειν, ὅτι πόλεως οἰκιζομένης ἑστίαν πρῶτον ἔδει ἱδρυθῆναι καὶ ταῦτα ὑπʼ ἀνδρὸς οὐκ ἀπείρου τῆς περὶ τὰ θεῖα σοφίας, τὰ δὲ κατὰ μέρος ὑπέρ τε τῆς κατασκευῆς τοῦ νῦν ὄντος ἱεροῦ καὶ τῶν θεραπευουσῶν τὴν θεὸν παρθένων ἠγνοηκέναι.
But those who for these reasons attribute the foundation of the temple to Romulus rather than to Numa seem, while speaking correctly on the general point—that when a city is being founded a hearth ought first to be established, and this by a man not unversed in divine wisdom—to have been ignorant of the particular details concerning both the construction of the temple now existing and the virgins who serve the goddess.
§2.65.3οὔτε γὰρ τὸ χωρίον τοῦτο ἐν ᾧ τὸ ἱερὸν φυλάττεται πῦρ Ῥωμύλος ἦν ὁ καθιερώσας τῇ θεῷ ʽμέγα δὲ τούτου τεκμήριον ὅτι τῆς τετραγώνου καλουμένης Ῥώμης ἣν ἐκεῖνος ἐτείχισεν ἐκτός ἐστιν, ἑστίας δὲ κοινῆς ἱερὸν ἐν τῷ κρατίστῳ μάλιστα καθιδρύονται τῆς πόλεως ἅπαντες, ἔξω δὲ τοῦ τείχους οὐδείσʼ οὔτε διὰ παρθένων τὰς θεραπείας κατεστήσατο τῇ θεῷ μεμνημένος ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ τοῦ περὶ τὴν μητέρα πάθους, ᾗ συνέβη θεραπευούσῃ τὴν θεὸν τὴν παρθενίαν ἀποβαλεῖν, ὡς οὐχ ἱκανὸς ἐσόμενος, ἐάν τινα τῶν θυηπόλων εὕρῃ διεφθαρμένην, κατὰ τοὺς πατρίους τιμωρήσασθαι νόμους διὰ τὴν ἐπὶ ταῖς οἰκείαις συμφοραῖς ἀνάμνησιν.
For Romulus was not the one who consecrated to the goddess this place in which the sacred fire is guarded. And a great proof of this is that it is outside the so-called Square Rome, which he enclosed with a wall; whereas everyone establishes the temple of the common hearth in the most central part of the city, and no one outside the wall. Nor did he establish the service to the goddess by means of virgins, remembering, as it seems to us, the misfortune concerning his mother, who happened to lose her virginity while serving the goddess; for he thought he would not be capable, if he should find any of the priestesses corrupted, of punishing her according to the ancestral laws, because of the memory of his own family's misfortunes.
§2.65.4διὰ ταῦτα μὲν δὴ κοινὸν ἱερὸν οὐ κατεσκευάσατο τῆς Ἑστίας οὐδὲ ἱερείας ἔταξεν αὐτῇ παρθένους, ἐν ἑκάστῃ δὲ τῶν τριάκοντα φρατριῶν ἱδρυσάμενος ἑστίαν, ἐφʼ ἧς ἔθυον οἱ φρατριεῖς, θυηπόλους αὐτῶν ἐποίησε τοὺς τῶν κουριῶν ἡγεμόνας τὰ παρʼ Ἕλλησιν ἔθη μιμησάμενος, ἃ παρὰ ταῖς ἀρχαιοτάταις τῶν πόλεων ἔτι γίγνεται.
For these reasons, indeed, he did not construct a common temple of Vesta, nor did he appoint virgin priestesses for her, but having established a hearth in each of the thirty curiae, upon which the members of the curiae sacrificed, he made the leaders of the curiae their priests, imitating the customs among the Greeks, which still take place in the most ancient of their cities.
τά γέ τοι καλούμενα πρυτανεῖα παρʼ αὐτοῖς Ἑστίας ἐστὶν ἱερά, καὶ θεραπεύεται πρὸς τῶν ἐχόντων τὸ μέγιστον ἐν ταῖς πόλεσι κράτος.
At any rate, what are called the prytaneia among them are temples of Hestia, and are tended by those who hold the greatest power in the cities.