A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

A Great Temple 345
IV. The Temple or the Capitoline Jupiter
The king undertook to build a temple to Jupiter, Juno,
and Minerva in performance of the vow he had made to
the gods in the last battle against the Sabines, He
therefore surrounded the hill, on which he proposed to
place the temple, with high supporting walls in many
places; for it was neither easy of access nor even, but
craggy and ending in a point; hence there was great difficulty
in rendering it fit for the purpose. He therefore
filled up the interval between the supporting walls and
the top of the hill with earth; and by levelling it, made it
very fit to receive the sanctuaries. But he was prevented
by death from laying the foundations of it: for he lived
but four years after the end of the last war. Many years
afterward, however, the Tarquin, who v^^as the second
king after him, and who was finally dethroned, laid the
foundations of this structure, and built a great part of it.
But even he did not complete the work, which was finished
under those annual magistrates who were consuls the third
year after his expulsion. It is proper to relate also the
incidents that preceded the building of it, which all the
writers of the local history have handed down. When
Tarquinius was preparing to build the temple, he called
the augurs together and ordered them first to consult the
gods as to the most suitable place of all the city to be consecrated,
and the most acceptable to the gods; and on
their naming the hill that commands the Forum, and was
then called the Tarpeian, now the Capitoline hill, he ordered
them again to declare after they had consulted the
gods, in which part of the hill the foundations ought to be
laid; in this matter there was no small difficulty; for there
were upon the hill many altars, of both gods and geniuses,
Work of the
Tarquins.
Begun by
the first
Tarquin.
Dionysius
iii. 69.
This temple
was dedicated
in the
first year of
the Republic.
Dionysius
knew it only
as it existed
in his own
time. Originally
it was
in Etruscan
style; cf.
Ancient
World, 321.