“The site of this temple has always been one of the vexed questions of history. At the time it was built, as now, the hill consisted of tw^o peaks, with a level space between them. Niebuhr and Gregorovius place the temple on the south-eastern height, but Canina and other authorities incline to the north-eastern eminence, the present site of Ara-Coeli, because, among many other reasons, the temple faced the south, and also the Forum, which it could not have done upon the south-eastern summit ; and also because the citadel is always represented as having been nearer to the Tiber than the temple : for when Herdonius, and, at a later time, the Gauls, arriving by the river, scaled the heights of the Capitol, it w^as the citadel which barred their path, and in which, in the latter case. Manlius was awakened by the noise of the sacred geese of Juno. The remains of an important building, discovered in November 1875 on the south-eastern eminence, are in favour of that site : but the question is still undecided.
The temple of Jupiter occupied a loftv platform, the summit of the rock being levelled to receive it. Its fayade was decorated with three ranges of columns, and its sides by a single colonnade. It was nearly square, being 200 Roman feet in length, and 185 in width. ^ The interior was divided into three cells ; the figure of Jupiter occupied that in the centre, Minerva was on his right, and Juno on his left. The figure of Jupiter was the work of an artist of the Volscian city of Fregellae,”‘^ and was formed of terracotta, painted like the statues which we may still see in the Etruscan museum at the Vatican, and clothed with the tunica palmata and the toga picta, the costume of victorious generals. In his right hand was a thunderbolt, and in his left a spear.

‘ Jupiter angusta vix totus stabat in aede ; Inque Jovis dextra fictile fulmeii erat.’
Ovid, Fast. i. 202.

At a later period the statue was formed of gold, but this figure had ceased to exist in the time of Pliny. When Martial wrote, the statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva were all gilt.
‘ Scriptus es aeterno nunc primuni, Jupiter, auro, Et soror, et sumnii ttlia tota patris.’
Martial, Ep. xi. 5.

In the wall adjoining the cella of Minerva, a nail was fastened every year, to mark the lapse of time.”* In the centre of the temple was the statue of Terminus…”

Augustus Hare: Walks in Rome. London 1891.

Bullsacrifice from Marcus Aurelius to the Capitoline Jupiter in the temple (with Colosseum-bullfight scenes !?)
….the relief served as a decoration of the Arch of Marcus Aurelius at Forum Romanum. In the 6th century the reliefs were walled in the walls of the church S. Martina built in the Roman Forum upon the ruins of the Secretarium Senatus. The reliefs were brought to the Palazzo dei Conservatori in 1515 upon orders of Pope Leo X…”