Capitoline Hill

When he is called Hammon he has horns.

As Capitolinus he wields the thunderbolt.

As Latiaris he is covered with blood.

As Feretrius he is no longer heard of.

Other materials for the oldest annals existed in the shape of various official documents, books of law based on precedents, books containing rules and regulations for different public functionaries, census lists, and above all official lists of the annual magistrates.

Some of these books may have been kept in the Capitol which resisted the onset of the Gauls, but the greater part of them must have been renewed after the war, and therefore they cannot claim to be considered unimpeachable contemporary evidence.

Another kind of documents which may have helped to preserve the memory of bygone times consists of laws and treaties cut in stone or engraved on metal tablets.

Among the most important of these were the laws of the Twelve Tables, which are said to have been exhibited in the Forum.

Copper at that time had the value of money.

It is therefore not likely that these tablets escaped the rapacity of the Gauls, who whilst they besieged the Capitol ransacked all Rome for hidden treasures.

We may be sure that the Twelve Tables of the Decemvirs did not escape, but as they contained the fundamental laws of the Republic, we may be equally sure that they were speedily restored and moreover that they were restored faithfully.

The same authenticity cannot be attributed to the so-called Laws of the Kings, Leges Regiae, which are often mentioned by later writers and unhesitatingly assigned to one or another of the seven kings as their author.

Palatine was one of them.

Capitoline.

Ergo, the name capital was another one.

Kirile, and blah, blah, blah.

Meanwhile, the king also worked on ambitious projects inside Rome, although some of these had been initiated by his father and completed by Tarquin.

Among them was the Cloaca Maxima, one of the world's first sewage systems, and the first version of the Temple of Jupiter, Optimus Maximus, built on the Capitoline Hill, which retained its significance as the most important temple in Rome throughout the ancient period.

The king was also responsible for acquiring one of Rome's most cherished artifacts, a collection of prophecies, divinations, and other oracular wisdoms known as the Sibylline Books.

According to the legend, an old prophetess called Sibyl visited Rome one day carrying nine books.

He routed and dispersed their army, pursued it in its flight, slew their king in the battle, and seized his spoils; after which he made himself master of their city at the first assault.

From thence he led home his victorious troops; and being not only capable of performing splendid actions, but also fond of displaying those actions to advantage, he marched up in procession to the Capitol, carrying on a frame, properly constructed for the purpose, the spoils of the enemy's general, whom he had slain; and there laying them down under an oak, which the shepherds accounted sacred, he, at the same time, while he offered this present, marked out with his eye the bounds of a temple for Jupiter, to whom he gave a new name, saying, Jupiter Feretrius, in acknowledgment of the victory which I have obtained, I, Romulus the king, offer to thee these royal arms, and dedicate a temple to thee on that spot which I have now measured out in my mind, to be a repository for those grand spoils which, after my example, generals in future times shall offer, on slaying the kings and generals of their enemies.

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Others say that, in pursuance of the agreement to deliver up what was on their left arms, she expressly demanded their shields, and this seeming to be done with a treacherous intent, she was put to death by means of the very reward which she required.

The Sabines, however, kept possession of the citadel.

But though, on the following day, the Roman army, in order of battle, filled the whole plain between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, yet they did not come down to the level ground, until the Romans, stimulated by rage and eagerness to recover the citadel, advanced to an assault.

The foremost champions of the two parties who led on the troops were Medius Curtius, on the side of the Sabines, and Hostus Hostilius, on that of the Romans.

The Senate, visibly relieved by so unassuming a request, granted it with positive effusion.

Duilius was invited to select his musician and chose the biggest, after which the procession moved on through the arch and up the Capitoline Hill, while the consul had time to remember things he would have liked even better than a flute player, and to suspect dimly that he might have made rather an ass of himself.

That night Duilius was entertained at a supper given at the public expense.

He went out with the proud resolve to show his sense of the compliment paid him by scaling the giddiest heights of intoxication.

Titus' rule would see yet more disaster strike the heart of the empire when, in 80 AD, a great fire broke out in Rome, a conflagration on the level of the great fire of 64 AD under the Emperor Nero.

Starting from the Capitoline Hill in the center of the city, it spread to the northwest and raged for three days and nights, destroying large numbers of buildings and homes.

In the wake of the fire, likely being caused by the unsanitary conditions in its aftermath, a great plague swept the city, heaping yet more suffering on the Roman people.

As with the eruption of Vesuvius, Titus' response was widely admired.