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Message:: [QUOTE="GinoLR, post: 8069648, member: 128351"]Yes, a very archaic cult image of small size. The Romans believed it had been brought from Troy by Aeneas. You can see Aeneas carrying his father Anchises on his shoulders and the Palladium in his hand on Julius Caesar denarii : [ATTACH=full]1399453[/ATTACH] (Not my coin !)It was a holy relic kept in the Temple of Vesta and nobody had the right to touch it, even to see it (except for the Pontifex Maximus of course). Exactly like the top of the Holy Lance and the Veil of Veronica which are presently kept in the St Peter Basilica in the Vatican, nobody can see them except on very rare occasions when they are exhibited (once in a century maybe). Under Commodus the temple of Vesta caught fire and the Palladium had to be quickly taken out, on this occasion the Romans watching the fire could see it. Later, Elagabalus moved it to the temple of Elagabal on the Palatine. When the temple was converted by his successor Severus Alexander into a temple of Jupiter the Avenger, the Palladium was left there and was now worshipped on the Palatine. The whole area was named after it, because in the middle ages a church dedicated to Mary was built on the foundations of the Jupiter Avenger's temple, and was called Santa Maria in Pallara : "Saint Mary in the Palladium area".[/QUOTE]