In 70 CE Vespasian ordered the restoration of the Temple of
Jupiter the Best and Greatest on the Capitoline Hill. The event
was recorded by Tacitus in an account which gives some idea of
the ceremonies of the state religion, and its intense conservatism.
The work of rebuilding the Capitol was assigned by him to Lucius
Vestinius, a man of the Equestrian order, who, however, for high
character and reputation ranked among the nobles. The soothsayers
whom he assembled directed that the remains of the old shrine
should be removed to the marshes, and the new temple raised on
the original site. The Gods, they said, forbade the old form to
be changed. On the 21st of June, beneath a cloudless sky, the
entire space devoted to the sacred enclosure was encompassed with
chaplets and garlands. Soldiers, who bore auspicious names, entered
the precincts with sacred boughs. Then the vestal virgins, with
a troop of boys and girls, whose fathers and mothers were still
living, sprinkled the whole space with water drawn from the fountains
and rivers. After this, Helvidius Priscus, the praetor, first
purified the spot with the usual sacrifice of a sow, a sheep,
and a bull, and duly placed the entrails on turf; then, in terms
dictated by Publius Aelianus, the high-priest, besought Jupiter,
Juno, Minerva, and the tutelary deities of the place, to prosper
the undertaking, and to lend their divine help to raise the abodes
which the piety of men had founded for them. He then touched the
wreaths, which were wound round the foundation stone and entwined
with the ropes, while at the same moment all the other magistrates
of the State, the Priests, the Senators, the Knights, and a number
of the citizens, with zeal and joy uniting their efforts, dragged
the huge stone along. Contributions of gold and silver and virgin
ores, never smelted in the furnace, but still in their natural
state, were showered on the foundations. The soothsayers had previously
directed that no stone or gold which had been intended for any
other purpose should profane the work. Additional height was given
to the structure; this was the only variation which religion would
permit, and the one feature which had been thought wanting in
the splendour of the old temple.<
Source:
Tacitus: Histories, Book 4. liii., Translated by Alfred
John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. Full text online at http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/histories.html
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