The Early Capitoline Hill

In its original form, the Capitoline Hill consisted of two low rises separated by a narrow, sloping, saddle-shaped depression. The Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus/Jupiter Optimus Maximus occupied the Capitol, the south rise. Rome’s citadel fortified the higher north elevation, the Arx. The depression between the peaks was called in antiquity “inter duos lucos,” “between the two groves,” although by the early first century BCE, the groves had long since disappeared. Overlooking the Forum, however, the depression was an important site. In the early first century BCE, it was occupied by a substantial structure of externally rusticated tufa blocks. A major fire destroyed that building in 83, but its partially preserved remains survive as foundations visible today from the interior of the arcade on the third floor of the Tabularium.