Esse diu stultus Vestæ simulacra putavi:
Mox didici curvo nulla subesse tholo.
Ignis inextinctus templo celatur in illo;
Effigiem nullam Vesta, nec ignis, habet.
“I long foolishly thought there were images of Vesta; then I found that none existed beneath the arching dome. An ever-burning fire is hidden in that temple. Image there is none either of Vesta or of fire.”
Ovid is speaking only of the worship of Vesta at Rome, and of the temple erected to her there by Numa, of whom he just before says:
Regis opus placidi, quo non metuentius ullum
Numinis ingenium terra Sabina tulit.
“The work of that peaceful king who feared the gods more than any other offspring of the Sabine land.”