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

Palatine Hill The Palatine Hill (; la, Collis Palatium or Mons Palatinus; it, Palatino ), which relative to the seven hills of Rome is the centremost, is one of the most ancient parts of the city and has been called "the first nucleus of the Roman Empire." ...

in Rome. In Roman legend, it was founded by King Romulus after he pledged to build it during a battle between the Roman army and that of the

Sabines The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divid ...

. However, no temple was actually built on the site until the early 3rd century BC.

Legend

The

Battle of the Lacus Curtius In Roman mythology, the Battle of the Lacus Curtius was the final battle in the war between the Roman Kingdom and the Sabines following Rome's mass abduction of Sabine women to take as brides. It took place during the reign of Romulus, near ...

took place in the Forum area between Romulus and Tatius, king of the Sabines. The Romans 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 ro ...

. However, at 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 mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

and vowed him a temple if he stemmed the Sabine advance. The Romans regrouped and held their ground, staving off defeat. On that spot, according to Livy 1.12.6, probably near or just outside the Porta, Romulus vowed to build the temple, if Jupiter caused the Romans to stop fleeing. And yet in Livy 10.36.11 the same story is told again 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 Ma ...

, 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 people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan-speaking people, who may have originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they for ...

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, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

deliver the first of his famous

Catiline Orations The Catilinarian Orations (; also simply the ''Catilinarians'') are a set of speeches to the Roman Senate given in 63 BC by Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of the year's consuls, accusing a senator, Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline), of leading a p ...

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 In 3 ...

oration against

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

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

Great Fire of Rome The Great Fire of Rome ( la, incendium magnum Romae) occurred in July AD 64. The fire began in the merchant shops around Rome's chariot stadium, Circus Maximus, on the night of 19 July. After six days, the fire was brought under control, but before ...

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 conqu ...

, near the "new street" (''nova via'') and that Queen

Tanaquil Tanaquil (Etruscan: ''Thanchvil'') was the queen of Rome by marriage to Tarquinius Priscus, fifth king of Rome. Life The daughter of a powerful Etruscan family in Tarquinii, Etruria, Tanaquil thought her husband would make a good leader, but sin ...

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 ( it, Arco di Tito; la, Arcus Titi) 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 the Roman emperor, Emperor Domitian shortly aft ...

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 Filippo Coarelli is an Italian archaeologist, Professor of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Perugia. Born in Rome, Coarelli was a student of Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. Coarelli is one of the foremost experts on Roman antiquitie ...

places it closer to the forum, between the

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina is an ancient Roman temple in Rome, which was later converted into a Roman Catholic church, the Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Miranda or simply "San Lorenzo in Miranda". It is located in the Forum Romanum, on the V ...

and the

Basilica of Maxentius The Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine ( it, Basilica di Massenzio), sometimes known as the Basilica Nova—meaning "new basilica"—or Basilica of Maxentius, is an ancient building in the Roman Forum, Rome, Italy. It was the largest building ...

, where the

Temple of Romulus A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

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

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

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

Stator The stator is the stationary part of a rotary system, found in electric generators, electric motors, sirens, mud motors or biological rotors. Energy flows through a stator to or from the rotating component of the system. In an electric mot ...

Destroyed temples

Legend

Location

The name ''Stator''

See also

References

Further reading

External links