The Capitoline Hill

Myth · The Hill of Jupiter's Temple

Its summit once bore Rome's most important temple — to Jupiter, the highest god.

The top of the Capitoline was Rome's most sacred place: the great temple of Jupiter, highest of gods (the Greeks' Zeus), stood here, and triumphant generals climbed the hill to sacrifice to him. So important was this hill that the English words 'capital' and 'Capitol' both descend from its name, Capitolium.

Sources：Livy, History of Rome

Today · The She-Wolf and the Twins

The Capitoline Museums here hold Rome's civic totem — the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus.

The Capitoline Museums here are among the oldest public museums in the world, and their treasure is the bronze of the she-wolf suckling the twins — legend says the abandoned founding twins Romulus and Remus were raised by a she-wolf. The image is still Rome's official symbol, stamped on the city's arms and its football crest. The first scene of the myth became the whole city's calling card.

Sources：Collections of the Capitoline Museums　·　The legend of Rome's founding

↑ Because of the last layer：Precisely because it had been Rome’s most sacred summit since antiquity, the Renaissance redesigned it to the highest standard.

Arts · Michelangelo's Piazza

The trapezoidal piazza and star-shaped pavement on the summit today are Michelangelo’s design.

In the 1530s the pope had Michelangelo redesign the summit piazza. He laid out a subtle trapezoidal space with an oval star-burst pavement, placing the ancient bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius at its center — aligning the classical empire and the Renaissance in one square. The beauty of order you see climbing the Capitoline today is a sculptor’s last grooming of this most ancient of sacred hills.

Sources：Vasari, Lives of the Artists