ne saved from the wreck. Flaminio Vacca, the sculptor and
amateur-archaeologist of the sixteenth century, says: "Upon the
Tarpeian Rock, behind the Palazzo de' Conservatori, several pillars of
Pentelic marble (_marmo statuale_) were lately found. Their capitals
are so enormous that out of one of them I have carved the lion now in
the Villa Medici. The others were used by Vincenzo de Rossi to carve
the prophets and other statues which adorn the chapel of cardinal Cesi
in the church of S. Maria della Pace. I believe the columns belonged
to the Temple of Jupiter. No fragments of the entablature were found:
but as the building was so close to the edge of the Tarpeian Rock, I
suspect they must have fallen into the plain."

The correctness of this surmise is shown not only by the discovery of
the dedicatory inscriptions, in the Piazza della Consolazione, just
alluded to, but also from what took place in 1780, when the duca Lante
della Rovere was excavating the foundations of a house, No. 13, Via
Montanera. The discoveries are described by Montagnani as "marble
entablatures of enormous size and beautiful workmanship, with festoons
and _bucranii_ in the frieze. No one took the trouble to sketch them;
they were destroyed on the spot. I have no doubt that they belonged to
the temple seen by Vacca on the Monte Tarpeo, one hundred and
eighty-six years ago."

All these indications, compared with the discovery of the platform,
the substructure, and the column of Pentelic marble in the
Conservatori garden, leave no doubt as to the real position of the
Temple of Jupiter. To that piece of marble we owe the opportunity and
the privilege of settling a dispute on Roman topography which had
lasted at least three centuries.

The temple, rebuilt by Domitian, stood uninjured till the middle of
the fifth century. In June, 455, the Vandals, under Genseric,
plundered the sanctuary, its statues were carried off to adorn the
African residence of the king, and half the roof was stripped of its
gilt bronze tiles. From that time the place was used as a stone-quarry
and lime-kiln to such an extent that only the solitary fragment of a
column remains on the spot to tell the long tale of destruction.
Another piece of Pentelic marble was found January 24, 1889, near the
Tullianum (S. Pietro in Carcere). It belongs to the top of a column,
and has the same number of flutings,--twenty-four. This fragment seems
to have been sawn on the spot to the desired l