Gradus: Moneta

Steps leading from the *Sacra Via, between the *Carcer and the Temple of *Concordia Augusta, to the Temple of *Iuno Moneta on the summit of the *Arx. In their entirety, these steps are generally known as the Gradus of Moneta on the basis of Ovid, who mentions steps leading to the Temple of Iuno Moneta in connection with the 16th of January and a Temple of Concordia; this was the Temple of Concordia Augusta, rededicated by Tiberius on that date in A.D. 10: qua fert sublimes alta Moneta gradus (‘where high Moneta carries lofty steps’: Ov., Fast. 1.637). The name scalae Gemoniae is attested from the time of Tiberius for the steps leading from the *Carcer, that is, the lower part of the Gradus of Moneta (Wiseman, Coarelli); in the Augustan period, gradus may have been the more usual term for these stairs. Centum gradus was the name for the steps which led up to the *Saxum Tarpeium: qua Tarpeia rupes Centum gradibus aditur (‘where the Tarpeian Rock is reached by the Hundred Steps’: Tac., Hist. 3.71.3). Since the Tarpeian Rock stood beneath the Temple of Iuno Moneta overlooking the Carcer, Centum gradus was probably also an alternative name for the lower section of the Gradus of Moneta (Wiseman, Coarelli). Rodríguez Almeida identifies the Centum gradus with the two stepped ramps leading to the S corner of the *Area Capitolina shown on the Severan Marble Plan (s.v. *Capitolium: Marble Plan Steps); this theory cannot stand, as the Saxum Tarpeium stood on the Arx. Thus the Gradus of Moneta led from the Sacra Via to the Temple of Iuno Moneta; from the Sacra Via to the Saxum Tarpeium these steps were also known as the Centum gradus, and later as the scalae Gemoniae. Since these steps are only attested by literary sources, our map offers a hypothetical course.