not surprising that the discovery made November
7, 1875, should have excited us; because we saw at once our chance of
settling the dispute, not theoretically, but with the evidence of
facts.

The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, designed by Tarquinius Priscus,
built by Tarquinius Superbus, and dedicated in 509 B. C. by the consul
M. Horatius Pulvillus, stood on a high platform 2071/2 feet long, by
1921/2 feet broad. The front of the edifice, ornamented with three
rows of columns, faced the south. The style of the architecture was
purely Etruscan, and the intercolumniations were so wide as to require
architraves of timber. The cella was divided into three sections, the
middle one of which was sacred to Jupiter, that on the right to
Minerva, that on the left to Juno Regina; the top of the pediment was
ornamented with a terra-cotta quadriga. Of the same material was the
statue of the god, with the face painted red, and the body dressed in
a _tunica palmata_ and a _toga picta_, the work of an Etruscan artist,
Turianus of Fregenae.

In 386 B. C. it was found necessary to enlarge the platform in the
centre of which the temple stood; and as the hill was sloping, even
precipitous, on three sides, it was necessary to raise huge foundation
walls from the plain below to the level of the platform, a work
described by Pliny (xxxvi. 15, 24) as prodigious, and by Livy (vi. 4)
as one of the wonders of Rome.

On July 6, 83 B. C., four hundred and twenty-six years after its
dedication by Horatius Pulvillus, an unknown malefactor, taking
advantage of the abundance of timber used in the structure, set fire
to it, and utterly destroyed the sanctuary which for four centuries
had presided over the fates of the Roman Commonwealth. The incendiary,
less fortunate than Erostratos, remained unknown, the suspicions cast
at the time against Papirius Carbo, Scipio, Norbanus and Sulla
having proved groundless. He probably belonged to the faction of
Marius, because we know that Marius himself laid hands on the
half-charred ruins of the temple, and pillaged several thousand pounds
of gold.

[Illustration: _R. Lanciani del._
THE WESTERN SUMMIT OF THE CAPITOLINE HILL]

Sulla the dictator undertook the reconstruction of the Capitolium, for
which purpose he caused some columns of the temple of the Olympian
Jupiter to be removed from Athens to Rome. Sulla's work was continued
by Lutatius Catulus, and finished by Julius Caesar in 46 B. C. A second
r