Temple of Jupiter

The temple was was first constructed around 509 B.C.E. which coincided with the overthrow of the Tarquinian kings. It was built more as an Etruscan designed but it became the heart of the Roman Republic.

It would include sections for Juno and Minerva but Jupiter was the Roman equivalent to the Greek Zeus. Those three representations of a divine God was known as the Capitoline Triad, which were significant to the Roman state religion.

The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was a standard religion, but religion was not just what people thought about a god or gods. The gods represented virtues like courage and caring and religion was how a scattered tribe created the social bonds that kept them together in hard times.

From its earliest times, it was a repository for objects that reminded them of their culture as a people. Rituals were a way of reminding them of the courage and sacrifice needed to overcome hard times or fight battles that meant surviving as a free people. They built their culture, which gave their generation an understanding of their struggles and sacrifices of historical significance.

It was a repository of writings and public records, of political importance, military exploits, and religious sacrifice. The Sibylline Oracles containing the prophecy of the Sibyls, copies of laws, agreements and treaties, were kept at the site, which was also a meeting place for the senate. It and all it contained were a physical symbol of Roman supremacy and divine mandate.

It was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times until a form of Christianity introduced by Constantine replace their original public religion. With this new state religion, the public funds for the upkeep of the temple were diverted by the emperor Theodosius in 392 C.E.