CAPITOLINUS MONS
* the smallest of the hills of Rome,
with a length of
about 460 metres and an average width of 180, lying
between the forum
and the campus Martius and extending in a general north-
east-south-
west direction. It was surrounded by steep cliffs on all
sides except the
south-east, where it was accessible from the forum
valley, and was
composed of three distinct parts, the elevations at the
north and south
ends and the depression between them. The present
height of the
north sumqit at the church of S. Maria in Aracoeli is 39
metres above the
mean level of the Tiber; that of the south summit, the Via
di Monte
Tarpeo, 38 metres; and that of the Piazza del
Campidoglio, 30 metres.
In the earliest period the north elevation seems to have
belonged to
the Sabine settlement on the Quirinal. Possibly the south
portion
came into possession of the Palatine Romans, but at any
rate the whole
hill became part of the enlarged city at the stage known as
the City of
the Four Regions, when the Romans and Sabines had
united, although
it was not included in one of the regions themselves.
1 This
seems to have
indicated that it belonged to the community as a whole.
Originally
the north summit-and presumably the south-was fortified
in the usual
way by escarpments and breastwork where the cliff was
steep, and
elsewhere by tufa walls, some traces of which have been
found (see
ARX).
2
When the Palatine and Sabine settlements were united, the
wall of the
enlarged city included the whole hill and ran along its
north-east side,
the line of the later so-called
MURUS SERVII TULLII
(q.v.). Traces of the
latter have been found at some points (see
ARX).
On the north elevation was the
ARX (q.v.), or citadel,
and on the south
Tarquin established the worship of the triad of great
gods-Jupiter,
Juno and Minerva-thereby marking this point as the
religious centre
of the community (
Gilb. ii. 448-456). To it was given the
name Capitolium
(caput, capitalis), which the Roman antiquarians
explained by a story
that in digging for the foundations of the great temple of
Jupiter, the
workmen found a human skull of great size which was
regarded as
prophetic of the future greatness of the city (
Liv. i. 55;
Varro,
LL v. 41).
Capitolium, therefore, was originally the proper
designation of this part
of the hill, and continued to be so used (Cic. pro Scaur.
47 ; Varro,
LL
v. 149; Verg.
Aen. ix. 448; Hor.
Carm. iii. 30. 8;
Liv. iii.
18. 10; Plin.
NH xix. 23; Mon.
Anc. iv. 3; and very freq.). The official
designation of the hill was Arx et Capitolium (
Liv. ii. 7. 10;
iii.
68. 7;
Gell.
v. 12. 2;
Liv. iii. 18. 1 : arce Capitolioque;
iii. 19. 7: in
arce in Capitolio;
vi. 20. 13: arce aut Capitolio; Val.
Max. vi. 3. 1 : in arce
aut in Capitolio)
or Capitolium et Arx with variations (Cic. pro Rab. 35;
Liv. i. 33. 2;
vi. II. 4;
xxxviii. 51. 8; Val.
Max. iii. 2. 7; Tac.
Ann. xi.
23), which
indicated its double nature and continued in use down to
the end of the
republic, although the increasing importance of the
Capitolium and the
decreasing necessity for a citadel led to the gradual
application of the
term Capitolium to the entire hill (CIL i 2. p. 191, 6, 198.
18; Cic. pro
Font. 30;
Liv. iii. 19. 12; Val. Max. i. I. II; Serv.
Aen. i.
720; Suet.
Tib. 3;
Gell. xvii. 21. 24; and freq.). On the other hand,
the word
Capitolium was also employed to designate simply the
temple of Jupiter
itself, as the most significant part of the whole (Cic. de
orat. iii. 180;
Vitr. iii. 3. 5; Plin.
NH vii. 182;
Vell. ii. 3. I; Tac.
Hist. iii.
71; and
freq.). The adjective Capitolinus was of course derived
from the noun,
and mons Capitolinus became a common name for the
whole hill (ad
Her.
iv. 43; Fest. 322;
Solin. i. 12;
iv. 13; Flor.
Ep. i. 11, 13;
Oros. ii. 19. 8;
Manil. iv. 28; Vib. Seq. geogr. min. 157 (Riese)); collis
Capitolinus
(
Liv. i. 12. I;
Mart. xii. 21. 6; Arnob.
Nat. iv. 3; August.
de civ. ii. 22;
iii. 8, 12;
iv. 23). The depression between the two
summits was called
INTER DUOS LUCOS (q.v.) or
ASYLUM (q.v.), the latter
name being explained
by the story that Romulus welcomed here the refugees
from other towns
(
Liv. i. 8). The precipitous cliff at the south-west corner
of the
Capitolium, from which criminals convicted of capital
offences were
hurled, was known from early times as saxum Tarpeium
(Varro,
LL v. 41)
or rupes Tarpeia (Tac.
Hist. iii. 71), and both the whole
hill and its southern
part were called
TARPEIUS MONS (q.v.), but the
statement of the Roman
antiquarians that this was the original name of the hill is
false. It was
also called Saturnius: cf. Varro,
LL v. 42 (antiquum
oppidum in hoc
fuisse Saturnia scribitur); Fest. 322;
Solin. i. 13.
The principal approach to both summits of this hill was
the
CLIVUS
CAPITOLINUS (q.v.), originally a path leading from the
forum to the
depression between the summits, where it divided; but the
erection of the
TABULARIUM (q.v.) at the end of the republic, and of
the mediaeval
buildings, destroyed all traces of earlier conditions on the
ridge between
the elevations. There were also two flights of steps, the
CENTUM GRADUS
and (perhaps) the
GRADUS MONETAE (qq.v.), which
led to the top of the
hill from the forum side.
The Capitolium proper, or south summit, was occupied
by the most
famous of all Roman temples, that of
IUPPITER OPTIMUS MAXIMUS CAPITOLINUS (q.v.), and the
AREA CAPITOLINA
(q.v.) or space in which
this temple and others stood; while on the north summit
were the Arx
and temple of
IUNO MONETA (q.v.).
During the first centuries of the republic, private
dwellings were
erected to some extent on the hill, for in the year 390
B.C. there was a
guild of those who dwelt
in Capitolio atque arce (
Liv. v.
50); and after
the treason of Manlius, a law was passed which forbade
any patrician
to live on either summit (
Liv. vi. 20). In spite of such
prohibitions, the
gradual destruction of the fortifications and the demands
of a rapidly
increasing population led to continual encroachments upon
this quasi-
sacred hill. In 93 B.C. a considerable tract, which had
belonged to the
priests, was sold and came into private possession (
Oros.
v. 18; cf. also
Cic. pro Mil. 64). By the middle of the first century the
whole hill, with
the exception of the area Capitolina, the actual sites of the
temples, and
the steepest parts of the slopes, was occupied by private
houses (Tac.
Hist. iii. 71; cf. Hist. Aug. Elag. 30). Remains of these
houses have
been found on the Arx near the church of S. Maria in
Aracoeli, and at
the foot of the stairway leading from the Piazza d'Aracoeli
to the
church (
NS 1888, 497;
1889, 68;
Mitt. 1889, 255;
BC 1873, 111-122, 143-146;
1888, 331; see also Acciaresi, Giuseppe Sacconi
(Rome 1911),
p. 40, fig. 45;
Capitolium ii. 270-275; cf. Fea, Fasti 114).
For the Capitoline in general, see
Jord. i. 2. 1-154;
Gilb.
i. 2424-57;
RE iii. 1531-1538; E. Rodocanachi, Le Capitole romain
antique et
moderne, Paris, 1904, and the English translation by
Frederick Lawton,
The Roman Capitol in Ancient and Modern Times, London
1906; Hulsen
in Festschrift fur H. Kiepert,
Berlin 1898, 207-222; and
Bilder aus der
Geschichte des Kapitols, Rome, 1899; Rueter, Das Kapitol,
Progr.
Halberstadt, 1898).