A marble picture of a Roman symbol

The marble bust depicting Cicero, the famous jurist and orator of the ancient Rome. It is host in a room of the Capitoline Museums, inside the Palazzo Nuovo. In his attitude the bust represents the spirit of Cicero, a very famous man in the Republican Rome. A man who defended the "mos maiorum", two words that underline all the skills of a perfect Roman: justice, right, honour.

Cicero protected Rome and its society from who didn't follow these ideas, like Verre, the governor of Sicily that Cicero managed to report with its famous orations, named in this case "Verrine". Verre was convicted and Cicero became so famous that arrived in Rome, showing all his skills. The peak of his career was the orations against Catilina, a nobleman and a senator who, after twobad elections for him, tried to organize a conspiracy. In this way he wanted to destroy the Senate, the core of the Republican style. This is the reason why Cicero was able not only to discover his plot, but also to asked for him a simple exile. 

A public murder could be something uncorrect for the roman moral. Then, Cicero died because he made a mistake. He wrote and talk other orations, named "Filippiche", against Marco Antonio. He was a member of the second triumvirate, with Lepido and Ottaviano (the famous Augustus). So, it was a really powerful man. For this reason, the name of Cicero was write down in the first position in the proscription lists. They were a list of name and surname that were convicted to death. And everybody could execute it, gaining also a reward... 

At the end, when Cicero was old, he escaped from Rome, trying to be safe in one of his villas. But some hit men, envied by Marco Antonio, reached him and kill him, cutting his head. According to the legend, it was brought in Rome, and when the Roman general, Marco Antonio, saw that he was so horrified that he threw it. But not his wife, which didn’t love very much Cicero. He took  her hairpin and sticked strongly his tongue, the venemous tongue which claimed so many bad things against his husband…

Stones from the divine Jupiter

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…