Chief of a group of small temples, the famous _Temple of Cybele_, "Mother of the Gods," stood at this corner of the Palatine. Thirteen years before it was built, the "Sacred Stone," the form under which the "Idæan Mother" was worshipped, had been brought from Pessinus in Phrygia, because, according to the Sibylline books, frequent showers of stones which had occurred could only be expiated by its being transported to Rome. It was given up to the Romans by their ally Attalus, king of Pergamus, and P. Cornelius Scipio, the young brother of Africanus--accounted the worthiest and most virtuous of the Romans--was sent to receive it. As the vessel bearing the holy stone came up the Tiber it grounded at the foot of the Aventine, when the aruspices declared that only chaste hands would be able to move it. Then the Vestal Claudia drew the vessel up the river by a rope. "Ainsi Sainte Brigitte, Suédoise morte à Rome, prouva sa pureté en touchant le bois de l'autel, qui reverdit soudain. Une statue fut érigée à Claudia, dans le vestibule du temple de Cybèle. Bien qu'elle eût été, disait on, seule épargnée dans deux incendies du temple, nous n'avons plus cette statue, mais nous avons au Capitole un bas-relief où l'événement miraculeux est représenté. C'est un autel dédié par une affranchie de la gens Claudia; il a été trouvé au pied de l'Aventin, près du lieu qu'on désignait comme celui où avait été opéré le miracle."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 142. In her temple, which was _round and surmounted_ by a cupola, Cybele was represented by a statue with its face to the east; the building was adorned with a painting of Corybantes, and plays were acted in front of it.[120] "Qua madidi sunt tecta Lyæi Et Cybeles picto stat Corybante domus." _Martial, Ep._ i. 71, 9. This temple, after its second destruction by fire, was entirely rebuilt by Augustus in A.D. 2.