The Temple of Jupiter Stator (''"Jupiter the Sustainer"'') was a sanctuary at the foot of the

Palatine Hill The Palatine Hill (; Classical Latin: ''Palatium''; Neo-Latin: ''Collis/Mons Palatinus''; ), which relative to the seven hills of Rome is the centremost, is one of the most ancient parts of the city; it has been called "the first nucleus of the ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. In Roman legend, it was founded by the first king of Rome,

Romulus Romulus (, ) was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of th ...

, honoring a pledge he had made during a battle between the Romans and the

Sabines The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divided int ...

. However, no temple seems to have been built on the site until the early 3rd century BC.

Legend

The Battle of the Lacus Curtius took place in the Forum area between the Romans and Sabines. The Romans under Romulus had been forced to retreat uphill on the

Via Sacra The Via Sacra (, "''Sacred Street''") was the main street of ancient Rome, leading from the top of the Capitoline Hill, through some of the most important religious sites of the Forum (where it is the widest street), to the Colosseum. The road ...

. According to Livy 1.12.6, in the vicinity of the Porta Mugonia Romulus prayed to

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

, vowing to build a temple on that site if the god stemmed the Sabine advance. The Romans regrouped and held their ground, staving off defeat. In Livy 10.36.11 the same story is told about the consul

Marcus Atilius Regulus Marcus Atilius Regulus () was a Roman statesman and general who was a consul of the Roman Republic in 267 BC and 256 BC. Much of his career was spent fighting the Carthaginians during the first Punic War. In 256 BC, he and Lucius ...

, who made a similar vow in a similar situation, when the Romans were losing a battle against the

Samnites The Samnites () were an ancient Italic peoples, Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan language, Oscan-speaking Osci, people, who originated as an offsh ...

in 294 BC, but they miraculously turned around, regrouped and held their ground against the enemy. Some scholars believe that the story of the earlier foundation by Romulus was a later pseudo-tradition. Livy himself (10.37.15) explains that the earlier temple was merely a , that is, consecrated ground where a temple was to be built later. On November 8, 63 BC, it was in this temple, close to the Palatine Hill, that the senate convened to hear the consul

Marcus Tullius Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

deliver the first of his famous

Catiline Orations The Catilinarian orations (; also simply the ''Catilinarians'') are four speeches given in 63 BC by Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of the year's consuls. The speeches are all related to the discovery, investigation, and suppression of the Catili ...

against his enemy Lucius Catilina. This temple was also the place where Cicero imagined himself, 19 years later, delivering his

Second Philippic The "Second Philippic" is an oration that was delivered by the Athenian statesman and orator Demosthenes between 344–343 BC. The speech constitutes the second of the four philippics the orator is said to have delivered. Historical background I ...

oration against

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...

, although that speech was never actually given. The temple was destroyed in the

Great Fire of Rome The Great Fire of Rome () began on 19 July 64 AD. The fire started in the merchant shops around Rome's chariot stadium, Circus Maximus. After six days, the fire was brought under control, but before the damage could be assessed, the fire reignit ...

during Nero's reign in July of 64 CE.

Location

Written sources locate the temple just in front of the gate of the

leading to the Sacred Way. For example, Ovid (''Fasti'' 6.794) mentions the temple of Stator "which Romulus once founded in front of the mouth of the Palatine Hill" (). However, the exact location of this gate, the Porta Mugonia, is not known with absolute certainty. Livy states that the temple was located near the royal palace at the time of the death of

Lucius Tarquinius Priscus Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (), or Tarquin the Elder, was the legendary fifth king of Rome and first of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned for thirty-eight years.Livy, '' ab urbe condita libri'', I Tarquinius expanded Roman power through military ...

, near the "new street" (''nova via'') and that Queen Tanaquil addressed the people from the palace window. There is a fair amount of consensus on a location just besides the

Arch of Titus The Arch of Titus (; ) is a 1st-century AD honorific arch, located on the Via Sacra, Rome, just to the south-east of the Roman Forum. It was constructed in 81 AD by Emperor Domitian shortly after the death of his older brother Titus to comm ...

on the northern slope of the Palatine Hill. When a medieval tower was demolished in 1827, the ruins of an ancient building appeared, and the remains are frequently identified as the foundations of the temple. The Italian archaeologist Filippo Coarelli places it closer to the forum, between the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the

Basilica of Maxentius The Basilica of Maxentius (), sometimes known by its original Latin name, Basilica Nova or, less commonly, the Basilica of Constantine (Italian: ''Basilica Constantini''), was a civic basilica in the Roman Forum. At the time of its construction, ...

, where the

Temple of Romulus A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

stands. His line of reasoning is based on the course of the Via Sacra before the construction of the Basilica of Maxentius, the known borders of the ancient administrative regions of the city and the literary sources listing the monuments in each region. The location near the Arch of Titus does not fit since it is in the wrong administrative region and not in the right position relative to the other buildings listed by ancient writers, but the Temple of Romulus on the Via Sacra is a perfect match.

The name ''Stator''

The Latin word (the ''a'' is short, cf. Ovid ''Fasti'' 6.794, ''Tristia'' 3.1.31) has two possible meanings, one "stander, attendant" from the intransitive verb "I stand", the other "he who makes someone stand", from the transitive verb "I cause to stand". The second meaning is the one intended here. The ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'' translates it as "one who establishes or upholds", Lewis and Short's ''Latin Dictionary'' as "stayer, supporter". Livy similarly connects the name with the verb in Romulus's prayer to Jupiter made at the moment when Romulus vowed to build a temple: "Take away the Romans' terror, and stay their disgraceful fleeing (); here I vow a temple to you, the Stayer Jupiter, to be a reminder to posterity that the city was saved with your present help." In his account of the year 294 BC, he connects it with "I stand firm": "(Regulus) vowed a temple to Jupiter the Stayer, if the Roman battle line stood firm".Livy 10.36.11.

References

External links

Sights

{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple Of Jupiter Stator (3rd century BC)

Jupiter Stator Jupiter ( or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus "sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove ( nom. and gen. ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and mytholog ...

Stator The stator is the stationary part of a rotary system, found in electric generators, electric motors, sirens, mud motors, or biological rotors (such as bacterial flagella or ATP synthase). Energy flows through a stator to or from the rotat ...

Destroyed temples Destroyed Roman temples

Legend

Location

The name ''Stator''

See also

References

Further reading

External links