"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. THE VICUS VESTÆ. From the Via Sacra, above the Arch of Titus, a street, passing along a ledge on the northern side of the Palatine, runs into the Vicus Tuscus at the back of the Temple of Castor. This was the street of the Vestals, separating their house from the Imperial Palace. Asconius ("ad Ciceronem pro Scauro,") speaks of it. We now cross over to the Sacred Way. _The first object that attracts our attention is the_ CHURCH OF SS. COSMO AND DAMIANO, _on the left_, occupying the site and built out of the remains of two temples by Felix IV., 527 A.D. The subterranean church contains a spring said to have been called forth by S. Felix. Upon the apse of the upper church is a mosaic of the time of Felix. THE TEMPLE OF ROMULUS, son of Maxentius, forms the vestibule of the present church. It was a circular building, and fronted towards the Via Sacra. The second temple Felix made into the nave of the church; it was quadrangular, and built of brick, but the western wall was of blocks of Gabii stone, forming part of the second wall of Rome, which was here utilized for the temple. It is thirty feet in diameter, and was erected in 302 A.D. Ligorio ("Vatican Codex," 3439) has preserved the inscription:-- IMP . CAES . AUGUSTUS . MAXIMUS . TRIUMPH PIUS . FELIX . AUGUSTUS. The two porphyry columns and the cornice belong to the temple; but the bronze doors are Etruscan, having been sent from Perugia by Urban VIII. in 1630. The wings on either side of the doorway were added in 772-95 by Hadrian I.; the niches, which still show traces of frescoing, being for relics of the saints. At the same time the present flooring of the church was inserted some feet above the ancient level. _On the left are slight remains of_ THE TEMPLE OF VICAPORTA, VICTORY.