Capitolium of Luni
About
Colonists raised this temple to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva at the forum soon after founding Luna in 177 BCE. Terracotta architectural fragments and black-gloss pottery from the site date its earliest phase to the colony's very first years. Standing on a raised podium overlooking the forum, it anchored civic and religious life in 117 CE. Marble from the nearby imperial quarries later reinforced the site's later buildings.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →