P.1455 - §2 While at Rome, Ganid had regular hours for study and for visiting places of interest about the city. His father had much business to transact, and desiring that his son grow up to become a worthy successor in the management of his vast commercial interests, he thought the time had come to introduce the boy to the business world. There were many citizens of India in Rome, and often one of Gonod's own employees would accompany him as interpreter so that Jesus would have whole days to himself; this gave him time in which to become thoroughly acquainted with this city of two million inhabitants. He was frequently to be found in the forum, the center of political, legal, and business life. He often went up to the Capitolium and pondered the bondage of ignorance in which these Romans were held as he beheld this magnificent temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. He also spent much time on Palatine hill, where were located the emperor's residence, the temple of Apollo, and the Greek and Latin libraries.
Capitolium today and early period.
L. Capitolium (Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus) (XLI in plan). — This national sanctuary of ancient Rome, designed by the elder Tarquin and built by his son Superbus, was dedicated by M. Horatius Pulvillus, consul, on September 13, 509 B. c. Writers describe it as raised on a platform 61.62 metres lonj;. and 57.17 wide, in the middle of a sacred area, which was bounded on three sides by precipitous cliffs. There were three rows of columns on the front of the temple, but none at the back; the style of architecture was pure Etruscan, low and heavy, with intercolumniation so wide (areostyle) as to require the use of wooden architraves. The-cella was divided into three compart, ments, the middle one sacred to Jupiter, the one on the left to Juno Regina, the one on the right to Minerva. The pediment was crowned by a quadriga of terra-cotta, in the manner of an acroterium; and the statue of the Father of the (iods was of the same material. It was the work of Turianus of Fregenae, who had painted the face of the god in vermilion, and dressed his body with the tunica palmata and the toga picta. Considering that the wooden architraves must have been covered likewise with panels of painted terra cotta, the roof lined with antefixae, etc., we may assume that the old Capitolium did not differ from the contemporary temples of southern Etruria, a splendid specimen of which, discovered at Faleria, is now exhibited in the Villa Giulia outside the Porta del Popolo.
In 386 B. c. the rugged and uneven surface of the hill around the temple was made level by means of gigantic substructures. which rose from the level of the plain to that of the temple itself, a work called " insane " by Pliny, and classed by Livy among the wonders of Kome. The C'apitolium was only accessible from the side of the clivus by means of stately stairs, a kind of "scala santa," which Caesar and Claudius ascended on their knees.
On July 6, 83 B. c., a malefactor, whose name was never discovered, set the building ablaze. Sulla undertook its reconstruction, for which purpose he laid his hands on some of the columns of the Temple of Jupiter the Olympian at Athens. Sulla's work was continued by Lutatius Catulus (the builder of the Tabularium), and finished by Julius Caesar in 46. A second restoration took place in the year 9 B. c. under Augustus, a third in 74 A. D. under Vespasian, and the last in the year 82 under Domitiau. Domitian's temple was of the same length and width as its predecessors, but higher and more svelte. It had Corinthian columns of pentelic marble.
For many generations topographers have discussed which of the two summits of the Capitoline hill was occupied by the temple, which by the citadel. A discovery made on November 7, 1875, gave me the first clue to the solution of the difficulty. While building the foundations of the new rotunda in the garden of the Palazzo dei Conservatori (where the works of art dug up on the Esquiline are now exhibited), we discovered the edge of the platform built by the Tarquins, and upon it a fragment of one of the columns of pentelic marble pertaining to the last restoration of Domitian. Such a find, taken by itself, would not have been conclusive ; but compared with others made in the course of the last four centuries, it proves beyond doubt that the Capitolium stood on the summit of Monte Caprino, and consequently that the Arx and the Tarpeiau rock must be placed on the Aracocli side.
First as to the insnua: nulmtructiontus which supported the sacred area. They have been seen and described by Flaminio Vacca on the side of the Piazza della Consolazione, by Sante Bartoli on the side of the Piazza Montanara, by Ficoroni on the side of the Via iIi Torre de' Specchi, their thickness exceeding five metres. The travertine facing of these walls was covered with inscriptions and dedications in honor of the great Roman god by the kings and the nntions of the world. One cannot read these historical documents, these messages of friendship and gratitude from the remotest corner of the earth, without acquiring a new sense of the magnitude and power of Rome.1 These dedications are found only on the side of the Monte Caprino.
A statute in the Capotolium.
Capitol hill (present). Palace of Campidoglio resides where roughly the old Capitolium was located.
Our English word "Capitol" is derived from Capitolium.
