Apartments in Rome

From earliest times on, the Capitoline hill (or Campidoglio) was the center of the political, sodal, and religious life of Rome. In addition to the old asylum, this was the site of the great Italic tempIe dedicated to the Capitoline Jupiter, and the name of Capitolium was used almost exclusively to designate the tempie rather than the entire site. Among others the arx, with the Temple of Juno Moneta (the Admonisher) and the tempie of the Vetus, also stood on the northern tip of the two knolls which comprised the height. The clivus capitolinus was the carriage road which led to the hill of the forum; there was also a flight of stairs which led to the arx alone and from which, near the Mamertine Prisons, the famous Scalae Gemoniae branched off.

The most sacred of the hills of Rome (even though the smallest) has continued to be the seat of power throughout the centuries. Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio now stands on its summit, defined by illustrious palaces and magnificently decorated by the statue of Marcus Aurelius, set at the center of the intriguing interplay of ellipses and volutes Michelangelo himself designed on the gray pavement of the square. Formerly in the Lateran square, the Mar­cus Aurelius was moved to the Capitoline in 1538 and had not apparently been previously taken into consideration by Michelangelo as decoration for the square.