| Narration: The only surviving sections of the temple are now in the Capitoline Museum in their original position. Matthew Nicholls believes it is a building that encapsulates the sacred ambitions of this new regime. Matthew: What we're looking at here, Simon, is a wall that forms part of the foundations of the Temple of Jupiter. It's not the temple itself, it's merely the foundations that built a huge platform on which the temple sat. Simon: And how big was it? It was enormous. Matthew: It was awe-inspiringly huge. You've got to imagine a podium that was perhaps the size of two Olympic swimming pools side-by-side with the temple itself sitting up on top of that. Simon: So this dominated central Rome? This dominated the forum? Matthew: It looked down on the forum, it looked out across the hills and valleys of Rome. It could be seen from a long way away and it was a magnificent sight. Simon: Who built it and what was its political significance? Matthew: Its significance is really what it tells us about the ambitions of the Roman state. It was linked right from the start to conquest and the divine mission of conquest the Romans felt they had. But even though we associate this temple very closely with the Roman Republic and the many rituals of the Republic, in fact it was planned, it was conceived, when Rome had kings, was ruled by Etruscan kings, and the last of them, Tarquinius Superbus, was responsible for almost bringing this temple to fruition, and then his rule was blown away in the revolution. Simon: So why did the Republic adopt this very royal enterprise? Matthew: Romans loved the idea that their rule and their growing empire was sanctioned by the will of heaven, that this was a mission that the gods entrusted to them as a people. Even when the kings were gone, the Roman people could carry that mission forwards. |
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