estoration took place in the year 9 B. C. under Augustus, a third A.
D. 74 under Vespasian, and the last in the year 82, under Domitian. It
was therefore evident that, if the temple had not been literally
obliterated since that time, its remains would show the
characteristics of the age of Domitian, who is known to have made use
of Pentelic marble in his reconstruction. We should also find these
remains in the middle of a platform of the time of the kings,
surrounded by foundation walls of the time of the republic. The
accompanying plan shows how perfectly the remains discovered on the
southwestern summit of the Capitoline Hill corresponded to this
theory.

The platform, in the shape of a parallelogram, 183 feet broad and a
few feet longer, is built of roughly squared blocks of _capellaccio_,
exactly like certain portions of the Servian walls. Its area and
height were reduced by one third, when the Caffarellis built their
palace, in 1680. A sketch taken at that time by Fabretti and published
in his volume "De Columna Trajana" shows that fourteen tiers of stone
have disappeared. A portion of the same platform, discovered in 1865,
by Herr Schloezer, Prussian minister to Pius IX., is represented on
the next page.

The foundation walls, which Pliny and Livy enumerate among the wonders
of Rome, have been, and are still being, discovered on the three
sides of the hill which face the Piazza della Consolazione, the Piazza
Montanara, and the Via di Torre de' Specchi. They are built of blocks
of red tufa, with facing of travertine. The travertine facing is
covered with inscriptions set up in honor of the great divinity of
Rome by the kings and nations of the whole world. One cannot read
these historical documents[49] without acquiring a new sense of the
magnitude and power of the city.

[Illustration: View of the Platform of the Temple of Jupiter.]

These inscriptions are found mostly at the foot of the substructure,
on the side towards the Piazza della Consolazione. The latest, found
in the foundations of the Palazzo Moroni, contain messages of
friendship and gratitude from kings Mithradates Philopator and
Mithradates Philadelphos, of Pontus, from Ariobarzanes Philoromaeus of
Cappadocia and Athenais his queen, from the province of Lycia, from
some townships of the province of Caria, etc.

As for the remains of the temple itself, the colossal column
discovered November 7, 1875, in the Conservatori garden, is not the
only o