Rising above the center of the Eternal City is the
Mons Capitolinus. This promontory is situated
between the Forum Romanum to the east and
the Campus Martius to the north and west. At its principle southern point stands the most sacred
site in all of Rome, The Templum Iovus Optimus Maximus, also known as the Capitoline Temple
of Jupiter.
The Mons Capitolinus from the south - Museo della Civiltà Romana
( click on image for greater detail )
The temple honors the Capitoline Triad of Deities. Jupiter, called Dies Pater
or Shining Father, his wife and co-regent Juno, Queen of the Gods and Jupiter's daughter Minnerva, Defender of Rome and Goddess of Wisdom. The Temple was exceedingly famous throughout the Roman World and was pridefully copied in provinces as far away as Britannia and Africa. The Mons Capitolinus was truly the spiritual heart of the mighty Roman Empire.
Jupiter et Thétis - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1811
The temple foundation is said to have been initiated by the
fifth Tarquin King, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, but only completed much
later by Rome's last Tarquin King, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus.
The Temple of Jupiter was completed in 509 BCE, but then subsequently
destroyed by lightning, war and fire on three different occasions. Each time
it was destroyed it was ardently rebuilt in a much more opulence manner
than in its previous existence. The last reconstruction of the temple
was completed by the Emperor Domitian in 82 AD.
At the Mons Capitolinus highest point lies the Arx, the
northern peak of the Mons Capitolinus. This northern
prominence is the site on which stands the Citadel of Rome
and the Augur's observation post. The Citadel was the mightiest
stronghold in all of Rome and held against numerous enemy
assaults for hundreds of years. Since it's earliest inception
the Mons Capitolinus had been the preeminent seat of the
municipal government and the unchallenged symbol of
Roman authority. Above the Roman Forum on the eastern
side of the hill stood the Tabularium in which was maintained
the bureaucratic offices of the state and all official records of Rome.
The building was used as a place to store the state archives such as
deeds, documentary laws, treaties, and decrees of the Senate.
This would be where one could find the senatus consultum
or the text of the Manilian Law.
The infamous Tarpeian Rock, a traditional place of execution,
lies just below the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus to the south
and many a condemned criminal has been thrown to their
death on the rocks below. The Tarpeian Rock received it's name
from Tarpeia, the traitorous vestal virgin and daughter of
Spurius Tarpeius, Commanding General under Romulus at the
Citadel. Ancient legend tells of Tarpeia's treachery. She faithlessly
allowed the Sabine forces inside the walls of the Citadel in
exchange for whatever they were wearing on their arms, hoping for
gold bracelets and other items of value. As the Sabine warriors
entered into the fortifications they immediately crushed her with
their battle shields, which were in fact on their left arm. Her ashes
were eventually scattered on the Tarpeian Rock which now
bears her name.
Many other famous events and occurrences have taken place here as well.
Inauspiciously Gaius Julius Caesar suffered a chariot accident during his
Gallic War Triumphal Procession in 45 BCE, clearly this was an ill omen
indicating the wrath of Jupiter for his actions during the Civil Wars.
In an effort to avert this unlucky augury he approached the hill
and Jupiter's Temple on his knees. Six months later he was
assassinated in Pompey's Theatre by a conspiracy of patrician
senators who opposed his ambitions. These same conspirators,
along with Marcus Junius Burtus, fled to the Temple
of Jupiter Capitolinus after Caesar's assassination and
barricaded themselves there until all danger from the angry
Roman mob had passed.
In Virgil's last epic work, the Aeneid, he refers to a closely
guarded vault beneath the Capitoline Temple of Jupiter where
once were held the renowned Books of the Sibylline. These
books of prophecy were faithfully consulted by the Quindecemviri
(council of fifteen) on all occasion of earthquakes and other
immediate or looming disasters. History records that the Apollonian
Sibyl who resided by the spring at Cumae originally offered
Tarquinius Superbus nine books of oracular utterances in Greek
hexameters. The price being too high Tarquinius rejected the offer
only to learn that she was burning the books of wisdom one
by one. When the sibyl shrewdly offered the remaining three
books for the same exorbitant sum as the original nine he
paid the price and the books were preserved there until the
disastrous fire which incinerated the Capitol in 83 BCE.
As Platner & Ashby's survey of ancient Rome notes there were three cellae
(chambers) side by side. That in the middle was dedicated to Jupiter and
contained a terra cotta statue of the god with a thunderbolt in his right hand.
It is noted to have been the work of Vulca of Veii and the face of which
was painted red on festival days. The character of this statue and that
of the rest of the decoration of the temple is clearly from the life-size
figures recently discovered at Veii and belonging to a group representing
the "stealing by Heracles of a stag sacred to Apollo". In the temple the
chamber on the right was dedicated to Minerva and the one on the left to
Juno. Probably there were statues also in these two chambers and each
deity would have had their own separate altar. (Varro ap. Serv. Aen. iii.134)
The statue of Jupiter was clothed with a tunic adorned with palm branches
and Victories (tunica palmata), and a purple toga embroidered with gold
(toga picta, palmata), the costume afterwards worn by Roman generals
when celebrating a triumph. The entablature was of wood, and on the apex
of the pediment was a terra cotta group, Jupiter in a quadriga, by the same
Etruscan artist as the statue in the cella. This was replaced in 296 BCE by
another, probably of bronze. (Liv. x.23.12)
There is no doubt that the pediment and roof were decorated with terra
cotta figures among them a statue of Summanus "in fastigio", perhaps an
acroterion, the head of which was broken off by a thunderbolt in 275 BCE.
In 193 BCE the aediles M. Aemilius Lepidus and L. Aemilius Paullus placed
gilded shields on the pediment. (Liv. xxxv.10)
At all periods the hill was less an inhabited part of the city than it was
a citadel and religious center. It was successfully defended against
the Gauls when they invaded Rome in 390 BCE. Here the Roman Consuls
offered their sacrifices at the beginning of each year and Provincial
Governors took their vows before journeying to their respective provinces.
A sacrifice here was the culmination of all victorious Roman Generals
celebrating their Triumphs.
The original Temple, then some 600 years old, measured almost
200 feet by 180 feet. The Temple was first destroyed in 83 BCE,
during the wars of the dictatorship of Sulla. The second temple
was constructed in honor of Q. Lutatius Catulus at the directive
of Emperor Augustus. It again was burned during the course of
fighting on the hill in AD 69 when Vespasian battled to enter the
city as Emperor. The last reconstruction was completed by
Vespasian's second son and heir after Titus, Emperor Domitian.
On the northern summit of the hill, the Arx, lies the temple of Juno
Moneta (344 BCE) and there as well stands the Auguraculum
or augur's observation post, a small grassy area complete with
primitive hut which overlooks the Forum. In the area between
the two hills of the Capitol, known as the inter duos lucos, lies the
temple of Veiovis (192 BCE) and the asylum associated with
Romulus. The eastern face of the hill overlooking the Forum is
occupied by the massive structure of the Tabularium whose foundation
was embedded in the living rock. The approach road from the Forum
still exists today, known to all as the Clivus Capitolinus.
