Capitolium Ostiense
About
Ostia's grandest temple, a brick-built, marble-clad Capitolium raised on a tall podium at the north end of the Forum and dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Hadrian's builders finished it around 120 CE, a few years after Trajan's death. An older cult building to the same three gods had stood on the same spot since the 1st century BCE, so Ostia's Capitoline triad already had a home here in 117 — just not yet this one.
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
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 →