Friday 3 March 2017

Stones from the divine Jupiter

Rome City Tour

These white rocks put all together, one by one, forming a real wall, aren't just simple rocks or archeological fragments. And the museum that hosts them isn't a simple museum! We are inside the Capitoline Museum and we're looking at the only remains of the ancient Temple of Jupiter which stood on the hilltop of the Capitoline Hill. It was built when Rome was very young and when he was ruled by kings. There was a kingdom, and there were the famous Seven Kings of Rome. The man who desired to build this temple was Tarquinio Prisco, the fifht king of the city (we are during the VI century BC).

There’s just a curiosity about him. He wasnt’ a Roman, but an Etruscan man. And this is the reason why he used the Etruscan model to realize this temple, which was completed by Tarquinio il Superbo, the last king of the city, another man coming from the Etruscan civilization, who brought with him the culture of his tribes. He was a real tyrant, and he enslaved many people to complete this majestic temple. This row of old rocks, which we can date to the VI century BC (long and long time ago), reveal us an ancient history and a curiosity! According to the legend, during the excavations to make the foundations wokers discovered a human skull. 

The ancient Roman ministers, called "aruspici", who came from the Etruscan area (do you remember something?), claimed that it was the symbol of the power of Rome which will became the "Caput Mundi" (in fact, skull is translate in ancient Latin with "caput"). Besides the temple underlines also other important aspect of the Roman style and culture. Jupiter wasn't just the Father of the Gods, but also the protector of Rome. In a certain way we should consider the God as an instrument of Rome which used him like a fear weapon, in order to conquer tribes and lands. 

They assimilitad the most powerful God with the most powerful city: Rome! So Jupiter wasn’t just a God but also the symbol of Rome, the main important God who accepted to help Rome. This process could be named with "romanizzazione": we could consider the figure of Jupiter, the Father of Gods for Romans, also the reason and the moral incentive for the power of Rome. And still today, looking at the white rocks of the foundation of the temple, we can feel something like that. A strange atmosphere which links us to the archaic time until the modern age… 

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