Capitolium: Marble Plan Steps

A series of stepped ramps leading up to the S edge of the *Area Capitolina, is attested on two fragments of the Severan Marble Plan (Rodríguez Almeida, Forma pl. 23, frags. 31 a,b,c; Carretoni et al., Pianta frag. 499; for the placement of these fragments on part of the *Capitol now lost through landslides, see Rodríguez Almeida 1991, 34-37 with fig. 4). One ramp led down to the “Area Sacra” di S. Omobono (frag. 499); another ramp led down in the opposite direction, was spanned by an arch, and doubled back on itself to reach the *Forum Holitorium (frags. 31 a,b,c); Rodríguez Almeida offers a possible reconstruction (1991, 38 fig. 5, 43 fig. 11). It has been argued that these were the ‘Hundred Steps’ mentioned by Tacitus (Hist. 3.71) as leading up to the *Saxum Tarpeium (Rodríguez Almeida 1993). But the Tarpeian Rock stood on the *Arx, and if only one set of stairs on the *Capitol was known as the Centum gradus, then the Marble Plan steps must have been known by another, albeit unknown, name. From the Marble Plan it seems that these ramped steps were an integral part of the Capitoline substructure walls. Indeed, Rodríguez Almeida (1991, 35-37) convincingly argues that the spine which divided the two sets of ramps also carried part of the Servian Wall from the crest of the Area Capitolina down to the *Porta Carmentalis (s.v. *Muri: Capitolium). One set of ramps led to the Forum Holitorium, outside the wall, and the other led to the *Vicus Iugarius, inside the wall. During the Gallic siege there were as yet no steps here, but it was possible for those with local knowledge to climb the cliff (Plut., Cam. 25.2-3; Livy 5.47.2; s.v. *Porta Pandana). Perhaps these ramped steps were built soon after, at the same time as the Capitoline substructures, in 388 B.C. (Livy 6.4.12). It is also possible, given that an arch spans the steps on fragments 31 a,b,c, that these were ‘the steps which stand above the Calpurnian arch’, gradus qui sunt super Calpurniam fornicem, mentioned in one account of the death of Ti. Gracchus in 133 B.C. (Oros. 5.9.2; Coarelli; Wiseman; contra, Rodríguez Almeida 1991, 33-34). From the limited available evidence, it seems that these imposing stepped ramps, which still existed in the Severan period, probably date from the early or mid Republic.