Temple of Jupiter Tonans

History

The temple was the third of four temples in Rome built by the emperor Augustus, after the Temple of Caesar and the Temple of Apollo Palatinus (dedicated in 29 and 28 BCE respectively) and before the Temple of Mars Ultor, dedicated in 2 BCE. Augustus vowed its dedication in 26 BCE to celebrate his escape from being struck by lightning while on a military campaign in Spain against the Cantabri. It was consecrated on 1 September 22 BCE. According to the French archaeologist Pierre Gros, construction likely began in the middle of 24 BCE, after Augustus's return to Rome from Spain.During the Secular Games, a religious and artistic festival revived by Augustus in 17 BCE and celebrated periodically thereafter, the temple was used as one of four centres from which the fifteen priests known as the quindecimviri sacris faciundis would issue purifying agents (purgamenta) – torches, sulphur and bitumen – to the Roman people.

According to Augustus's biographer Suetonius, it was among Augustus's most important architectural works, alongside the Forum of Augustus, the Temple of Mars Ultor, and the Temple of Apollo Palatinus. Augustus himself visited the temple frequently. It was considered to be comparatively small. Unusually for Roman temples, its walls were constructed entirely of solid blocks of marble. According to a depiction of the temple on a coin of Augustus, minted around 19 BCE, its portico was hexastyle (that is, constructed with six columns across its front) and built in the Corinthian order. …

Location on the Capitoline Hill

The precise location of the temple is uncertain; it is believed to have been located towards the south-east of the Capitoline. Based on Suetonius's comment about it being a "doorkeeper" to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, it is considered to have been located close to the entrance to the Area Capitolina, the sanctuary of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. A tentative identification has been made between the temple and a building shown at the eastern edge of the Area Capitolina on the third-century CE map of Rome known as the Forma Urbis Romae.