The religious topography of the Capitoline and Palatine hills in the Augustan and early imperial periods, with particular reference to the cult of Jupiter

This thesis re-­assesses the current understanding that the establishment of a new cult of Apollo on the Palatine in 28 BCE represented, intentionally or unintentionally, a lowering of the status of the state god Jupiter on the Capitoline and a major shift in the political and religious history of the Augustan period. It makes a detailed study of the evidence for the architecture and role of each of the Augustan temples dedicated to Jupiter on the Capitoline (Chapter 4: Jupiter Feretrius, Chapter 5: Jupiter Tonans and Chapter 6: Jupiter Capitolinus), and investigates the possible relationships between them and the temple of Apollo and the imperial palace on the Palatine. In doing so, this thesis revises some key elements of accepted reconstructions and argues that the design and location of all four Augustan temples and the imperial palace were closely interconnected and their placement calculated to link the person of Augustus and his residence as much with Jupiter as with Apollo. (Chapters 1-­2). Later Emperors, such as Domitian, repeated and adapted this Augustan topography.