page_title: Etruscan architecture
section_title: Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
hierarchical_section_title: Etruscan architecture / Temples / Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Reconstitution du temple de Jupiter Capitolin à Rome
context_page_description: Etruscan architecture was created between about 900 BC and 27 BC, when the expanding civilization of ancient Rome finally absorbed Etruscan civilization. The Etruscans were considerable builders in stone, wood and other materials of temples, houses, tombs and city walls, as well as bridges and roads. The only structures remaining in quantity in anything like their original condition are tombs and walls, but through archaeology and other sources we have a good deal of information on what once existed.
  From about 630 BC, Etruscan architecture was heavily influenced by Greek architecture, which was itself developing through the same period. In turn it influenced Roman architecture, which in its early centuries can be considered as just a regional variation of Etruscan architecture. But increasingly, from about 200 BC, the Romans looked directly to Greece for their styling, while sometimes retaining Etruscan shapes and purposes in their buildings.
  The main monumental forms of Etruscan architecture, listed in decreasing order of the surviving remains, were: the houses of the wealthy elite, the mysterious "monumental complexes", temples, city walls, and rock-cut tombs.
context_section_description: The first building of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill was the oldest large temple in Rome, dedicated to the Capitoline Triad consisting of Jupiter and his companion deities, Juno and Minerva, and had a cathedral-like position in the official religion of Rome. Its first version was traditionally dedicated in 509 BC, but in 83 BC it was destroyed by fire, and the rebuilt Greek-style temple completed in 69 BC (there were to be two more fires and new buildings).  For the first temple Etruscan specialists were brought in for various aspects of the building, including making and painting the extensive terracotta elements of the entablature or upper parts, such as antefixes.  But for the second building they were summoned from Greece.
  The first version is the largest Etruscan temple recorded, and much larger than other Roman temples for centuries after.  However, its size remains heavily disputed by specialists; based on an ancient visitor it has been claimed to have been almost 60 m × 60 m (200 ft × 200 ft), not far short of the largest Greek temples.  Whatever its size, its influence on other early Roman temples was significant and long-lasting.  Reconstructions usually show very wide eaves, and a wide colonnade stretching down the sides, though not round the back wall as it would have done in a Greek temple.  A crude image on a coin of 78 BC shows only four columns, and a very busy roofline.
caption: Speculative model of the first Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in Rome
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