Capitolium of Sabratha
About
The marble Capitolium standing over Sabratha's forum today is a late-2nd-century rebuilding from the age of the Antonine emperors, roughly six decades past this map's 117 CE snapshot. An earlier, plainer temple to the Capitoline Triad may have stood on the same spot, but no securely dated evidence for it survives. In 117 CE this corner of the forum does not yet hold the building visitors see today.
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
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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 →