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The Capitoline Temple was the most important place of Roman state religion. Due to the strong connection between religion and politics, it also performed many other functions. The proof of its uniqueness is the fact that it was built in the royal era and retained the status of the largest Roman temple for several centuries. For almost a millennium, it towered over Rome from the Capitoline Hill. During this time, it was destroyed many times, but each time it was rebuilt.
Aedes Capitolina
The Capitoline Temple (Aedes Capitolina) was the temple of the Capitoline Triad. It consisted of the three most important deities of the Roman state religion, namely: Jupiter the Best, the Greatest, Juno Regina and Minerva. However, the dominant role belonged entirely to Jupiter. The temple itself was dedicated primarily to this god. This is reflected in the name, as it is also called the Temple of Jupiter the Greatest (Templum Iovis Optimi Maximi; or Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi[Capitolini]) . The difference between the Latin terms: aedes and templum exists, but from the perspective of our culture it is imperceptible. Well, both can be translated as temple. The first term actually means a building performing religious functions, while the second one also refers to an object performing such functions, but it definitely does not have to be a building. It was a separate, marked and clearly fenced-off space dedicated to deities through the act of inauguration. The problem is further complicated by the fact that aedes were often built in the templum area. This difference, however, was described mainly in the works of Roman antiquarians. Therefore, we are not sure whether the Romans of the Imperial era distinguished between these two terms.
The First Capitoline Temple
Relatively very little is certain about the history of royal Rome, and this is also the case with the beginnings of the history of the Capitoline Temple. The main source of knowledge, apart from archeology, is the monumental work of Titus Livius Ab urbe condita. Legends contain information that the fifth king – Lucius Tarquinius the Old – supposedly vowed to build a temple to Jupiter the Greatest. It was supposed to happen during the battle. Then he was to prepare the area for the temple. Terracing was necessary due to the shape of the land on which the building was to be built. Modern research has shown the historicity of land leveling works. The murder of Lucius Tarquinius the Old had a negative impact on the intensity of work. However, invaluable progress was made by his son (or grandson), the last king of Rome – Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. He was to complete the foundation work and then build a large temple. Etruscan specialists were additionally involved in the work. The amount of work the king put in and its effects are best documented by the fact that Titus Livius, a clearly reluctant ruler, admired them:
It was he who began the war with the Volsci which was to last more than two hundred years after his time, and took Suessa Pometia from them by storm. [3] There, having sold off the booty and raised forty talents of silver,1 he conceived the project of a temple of Jupiter so magnificent that it should be worthy of the king of gods and men, the Roman empire, and the majesty of the site itself. The money from the captured city he put aside to build this temple.
– Livy, I: 53
Titus Livius further writes that after the oligarchic revolution, the new authorities in the person of the consul Marcus Horatius Pulwillus made an act of dedication (consecration) of the temple. Plutarch adds that Publius Valerius Publicolus, Horatius’s personal rival, wanted to prevent him from doing this, because he ordered him to tell him a lie that his son had died suddenly. However, the consul correctly carried out the consecration of the temple. According to Livy, this was to happen on September 13 of the year in which the regime changed; it was therefore 509 BCE according to Varronic chronology.
According to ancient historians, the act of dedication described above is shrouded in controversy. Their cause is the tradition of hammering one nail into one of the columns on each anniversary of the temple’s dedication. This gave the Romans the opportunity to know the exact year of dedication by counting these nails. We know that this was done by the aedile of 304 BCE, Gnaeus Flavius. His count showed that the temple was dedicated in 512/511 BCE, i.e. before the change of regime. So was the version transmitted by Titus Livius an accidental error? Very likely not. The Romans lied deliberately because they did not want to admit that the greatest temple in Rome was not only built but also dedicated by the last king. This is related to a strong aversion to the royal system, to the title of rex, and especially to its last bearer. The Romans wanted to take away the glory of dedicating the temple to the last, hated king, and use it to illuminate the beginnings of the history of a new, republican system, allegedly established by themselves. Defenders of tradition refer to the fact that Horatius’s name was written on the temple’s architrave. However, its opponents have a strong counter-argument. Namely, it is natural that the new regime rededicated many holy places, including the most important of them – the Capitoline Temple.
Returning to the topic of building the temple, Roman tradition mentions two positive omens that were supposed to take place. Well, according to Roman religion, auspices took place before construction. The goal was to make the area for the temple free from old obligations. In this case, it was extremely necessary, because already in the royal era, the Capitol was a place of various cults of many deities. Almost all of them agreed to leave the occupied area, giving the inaugurated place to Jupiter. The exception was supposed to be Terminus – the god of borders. The Romans interpreted his disagreement as an expression of the permanence of state borders. Moreover, Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote that apart from Terminus, the goddess Juventas also disagreed. The second omen was the discovery while digging the foundations, of the head of a man with a very well-preserved face. With the help of Etruscan soothsayers, it was to be determined that Rome would be the head of a great empire. This is also where the designation of Rome as the head of the world (caput mundi) comes from.
The main building material of the temple was wood, and terracotta was used for decoration. The dimensions of the building remain the subject of speculation among researchers. Two theories dominate. The first assumes a rectangle with sides of length: 55 m and 65 m; the second one is a square with a side of 60 m. It is certain, however, that it was built in the Tuscan order. It was built on a 5 m high podium. The foundation slab was made of a special type of tuff, most of which was obtained while levelling the construction site. The three sides of the temple were surrounded by a colonnade, with six columns along each side. However, there were two additional rows of columns on the front side, so there were eighteen of them in total. They formed a portico in front of the cellas. The entire building was covered with a gable roof. Each deity of the Triad had its own cella.
The middle one belonged to the most important one – Jupiter; right – to Minerva; left – to Juno. In each cell there was a cult image of a deity. There were also, but naturally less exposed, other sculptures, especially of deities closely related to the main ones, an example was the image of Summanus. The most characteristic sculpture, however, was on the roof, as it was an image of Jupiter leading a quadriga. The iconic statue of Jupiter depicted him proudly wielding lightning. He was dressed in a tunic decorated with palm leaves (tunica palmata) and a purple toga decorated with gold thread (toga picta). The authorship of both sculptures is attributed to the Etruscan artist, Vulca of Veii.
The Capitoline Temple witnessed an extremely difficult episode in the history of Rome, which, due to its consequences, stopped further Roman expansion for some time – the invasion of the Gauls in 390 BCE. After the defeat at the Battle of the Alia River, Rome was plundered. The place where the Romans defended themselves the longest was the Capitol, whose largest building was the temple. Plutarch reports that the siege of the Capitol la