<p>The most ancient shrine in Rome dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, the Capitolium Vetus was located on the *Quirinal at the top of a steep street leading from the Temple of *Flora (Varro, <i>Ling</i>. 5.158: <i>versus Capitolium Vetus</i>). Varro explicitly notes that the Capitolium Vetus was older than the Temple of *Iuppiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus. No archaeological remains of the structure survive, but Varro’s use of ‘<i>sacellum</i>’ implies that the Capitolium Vetus was of modest dimensions, perhaps no more than an open area with altars (Coarelli; contra, Ziolkowski 36-38, who argues, with little success, that the Capitolium Vetus was an independent peak of the Quirinal).</p>
<p>Traditionally, the Capitolium Vetus had been located near the Palazzo Barberini based upon two inscriptions found there in the 17th c. (<i>CIL</i> I<sup>2</sup> 727-28=VI 30926-27=<i>ILS</i> 33-34=<i>ILLRP</i> 176-77). Set up by the city’s Asian allies sometime after the Mithridatic Wars, these honorific tablets were thought to mirror similar ones erected on the *Capitol (<i>ILLRP</i> 178-80). However, recent scholarship has plausibly questioned the association of these inscriptions with the Capitolium Vetus; the plaques may have belonged to a larger group of bilingual inscriptions originally displayed on the Capitoline, then dispersed throughout the city after the fire of 83 B.C. (Degrassi, <i>ILLRP</i> 174-81; linking them to the Temple of *Salus, Manca di Mores 330, and Ziolkowski 144-48; with the Temple of *Quirinus, Coarelli 187).</p>
<p>In the absence of archaeological remains and dependable epigraphic evidence, the topographic clues provided in textual sources become the primary basis for locating the shrine. The 4th-c. A.D. Regionary Catalogues list the Capitolium Vetus in <i>Regio VI: Alta Semita</i> after the temples of Salus, Serapis, and Flora and before the Baths of Constantine; this suggests that the <i>sacellum</i> stood in the NW sector of the Quirinal, most likely on the <i>collis Salutaris</i>. Since the Capitolium Vetus stood uphill from the Temple of Flora (Varro, <i>loc. cit.</i>) with an unobstructed view between them (Mart. 5.22.4), the ancient shrine probably stood somewhere on the E side of the <i>collis Salutaris</i>.</p>