Arx | Digital Augustan Rome

The term ‘Arx’, when applied to the *Capitol, is used exclusively and unambiguously for the N summit. Wiseman has shown beyond doubt that Tacitus provides no exception to this rule in his account of the Vitellians’ attack on the Flavians in A.D. 69 (Hist. 3.69-73), but Wellesley still maintains that Tacitus refers to the area around the Temple of *Iuppiter Optimus Maximus. The present-day Arx is dominated by the Church of S. Maria in Aracoeli, and geological studies have shown that this does indeed stand on the highest point, a summit with an area of about 1 ha; the Aracoeli gardens overlooking the *Forum Romanum stand 5 m below the summit (Ammerman and Terrenato). Within this garden are walls dating back to the Archaic period. Our map follows Giannelli’s division of the remains into two structures: a square temple podium, which he identifies as that of *Iuno Moneta (*Concordia, Aedes [Arx] on our map), and a rectangular platform, identified as the *Auguraculum (Arx). The most prominent feature on the Arx in the Augustan period was the Temple of Iuno Moneta, which stood under the Church of S. Maria in Aracoeli. There is a good case for locating the cult of Isis Capitolina on the W slopes of the Arx (Arata; Wiseman 174-75), but it is not clear if Isis (and Serapis) had much of a presence here during the Augustan period, given the frequent expulsions of this cult. In 48 B.C. the nearby shrine of Bellona was accidentally destroyed (Dio Cass. 42.26.2). The cult of (Dea) Caelestis, introduced from Carthage after 146 B.C., also stood on the Arx. In contrast with the temple precinct on the Capitol’s S summit, the *Area Capitolina, the temples on the Arx stood in an area of dense housing (s.v. *Capitolium). In common with the S summit, the outer slopes of the Arx were artificially extended by retaining walls built in connection with the Servian Wall (s.v. *Muri: Capitolium). At a point overlooking the Forum Romanum and the *Carcer stood the *Saxum Tarpeium. Somewhere beneath the NE slopes of the Arx stood the Lautumiae, stone quarries also used as prisons in the mid-Republic. Their precise location is not known, hence they are not shown on the map. The Arx was accessed from the saddle, and by steps from the Forum Romanum known as the *Gradus of Moneta or the Centum gradus.AddendumP. Mazzei, “Nuovi dati per la topografia dell' Arce in Campidoglio,” BullCom<a href="http://example.com/new.php?page=BullCom">?</a> 99 (1998) 7-50 (with notable map on p. 11).