Capitolium Volubilitanum
About
The Capitolium of Volubilis went up in 218 CE, a tetrastyle temple raised on the city's ceremonial high ground and dedicated to the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Four columns fronted its podium, marking a temple type every Roman citizen would have recognized from a hundred provincial cities across the empire. A stork's nest now tops one of its surviving columns, a small irony atop a monument built to project Roman religious authority on the empire's western edge. Because construction began a full century after Trajan's death, Volubilis had no Capitoline temple at all during the 117 CE snapshot.
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 →