Every legislature's "Capitol", in every language, borrows its name from this hill. The great temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva stood here, inaugurated in 509 BC, and every Roman triumph ended by climbing to it. By the Renaissance it was a muddy slope where goats grazed — and then a pope wanted to impress an emperor, and called in Michelangelo.
The religious centre of the ancient city
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was inaugurated in 509 BC, and its podium measured about 55 by 60 metres. Its foundations survive under the Palazzo Caffarelli and can be seen.
It burned in 83 BC, in AD 69 and again in AD 80, and was rebuilt each time. A victorious general's triumph ran through the city and ended here, with his captives behind him.
Note the division of labour in ancient Rome: the Capitoline was the religious centre, and the Forum below was the civic one. The hill only became the seat of city government in the twelfth century, when the Romans revived a Senate — and it still is. Rome's mayor sits in the Palazzo Senatorio, on top of the Tabularium, the ancient state record office, which still faces the Forum.
Michelangelo turned the hill around
Michelangelo's redesign began in the 1530s, and its most radical move is easy to miss: he turned the whole composition to face the modern city rather than the Forum. For two thousand years this hill had looked at ancient Rome. He made it look the other way.
The cordonata, his shallow ramp, rises gently — built for horses as much as feet — flanked by Egyptian lions and topped by the Dioscuri. The piazza above is a trapezoid, not a rectangle, which makes the Palazzo Senatorio appear deeper and grander than it is.
Almost all of it was built after his death. The star-patterned pavement he designed was not laid until 1940, four centuries later, under Mussolini.
The only one left
At the centre stands the bronze equestrian Marcus Aurelius, brought here in 1538. Of roughly twenty-two large equestrian bronzes recorded in ancient Rome, it is the only one that survived — probably, tradition holds, because medieval Romans believed it depicted Constantine and therefore did not melt it down.
The statue in the piazza has been a replica since 1997. The original is inside the Capitoline Museums.
Those museums began in 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV gave a group of ancient bronzes to the Roman people. They opened to the public in 1734, which is the basis of the claim — the museum's own, and widely repeated — to be the oldest public museum in the world.
Six things almost everyone believes that aren't true
| Claim | Verdict | What is actually the case |
|---|---|---|
| The Marcus Aurelius in the piazza is the original | False | It has been a replica since 1997. The original is inside the Capitoline Museums |
| The She-wolf and twins are one ancient Etruscan sculpture | False, and debated | The twins were added in the fifteenth century, and scientific testing suggests the wolf itself may be medieval |
| Michelangelo built the piazza | Partly false | He designed it. Almost all of it was built after his death, and the pavement only in 1940 |
| The geese saved Rome from the Gauls | Legend | A famous story from Livy. Rome itself was sacked; only the citadel is said to have held |
| Tarpeia was a Vestal Virgin | Disputed | Later sources say so; Livy calls her the daughter of the citadel's commander. Do not assert either |
| The Capitoline was always Rome's civic centre | Partly false | In antiquity it was the religious centre and the Forum was the civic one. Government moved up here in the twelfth century |
Two things to look for
The word money may come from this hill: a temple of Juno Moneta stood on the Arx and Rome's mint was nearby, which gave English both "money" and "mint". The etymology is widely accepted; the exact location of the mint is debated.
And walk round the right-hand side of the Palazzo Senatorio to the terrace. The view down over the Forum from there is the one that explains the whole layout of ancient Rome — and it is free.
Hear this one standing in front of it
Wanderlight's Rome guide covers 13 landmarks and runs 2 hr 50 min in total. It plays offline, keeps going with the screen off, and doesn't ask you to make an account.
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Written from Wanderlight's research dossier for Capitoline Hill — the same one the narration is written from. Where the evidence is thin, this page says so rather than rounding the uncertainty up.