Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi

JOM-01

 

Sources

plan: Coarelli 2007

facade: see Tuscan Temple rule documentation


Timeline

  • Reign of Tarquinius Priscus: Temple vowed
  • Reign of Tarquinius Superbus: Temple completed
  • 83 BCE: Temple burned in a great fire
  • 76 BCE: Rebuilt by Q. Catulus

Physical Details

  • Had an altar in front consecrated to Jupiter
  • North side of the Area Capitolina
  • Faced southwest, three rows of columns on the pronaos, one on the side.
  • Original temple had a base of cappellaccio blocks, measuring 62.25m x 53.5m
  • Oriented along a northeast-southwest axis
  • Likely had a 3-layer roof
  • Tripartite (Juno, Jupiter, Minerva)
  • New temple was tetrastyle and was of the Tuscan order like the archaic temple
  • Plin. nat. 36.45 refers to the use of the Corinthian-order marble columns from the peristyle of the Athenian Temple of Olympian Zeus, taken in the sack by Sulla, but the numismatic evidence does not support this.
  • New temple had same dimensions and base as original

Literary sources

  • App. bell. civ. 1.83
  • Cic. Catil. 3.4.9, 3.9; de orat. 3.46.180, Verr. II 4.69
  • Dion. Hal. 3.69.3-4, 4.62.5-6
  • Liv. 1.38.7, 1.53.2-5 1.55.2-6
  • Mart. 5.10.6
  • Plin. nat. 33.16, 36.45
  • Plut. Publ. 15.1-2
  • Sall. Catil. 47.2
  • Suet. Aug. 94.8; Jul. 15.1
  • Tac. ann. 6.12.3; hist. 3.72.3
  • Val. Max. 6.9.5
  • Vitruvius 3.3.5