Tradition attributes the original foundation to Numa Pompilius in the 7th century BCE. The Gauls destroyed the temple in 390 BC, and fires followed in 241 BC, 210 BC and the early 1st century BC. It was rebuilt under Augustus and Nero, again by Trajan after the Great Fire of 64 AD, and for the last time under Septimius Severus after a fire in 191 AD, sponsored by Julia Domna.
It is a tholos, a circular temple in the Roman Forum, unlike most Roman temples, which were rectangular. The podium is about 49 feet (15 m) in diameter, with twenty fluted Corinthian columns and an interior diameter of 28 feet (8.6 m). The central cella housed the sacred hearth, and there was no cult statue.
Theodosius I extinguished the sacred flame in 394 AD, and the temple was demolished in 1549. Alfonso Bartoli reconstructed two and a half bays in 1930 and 1931, which are still visible.
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