TEMPLE OF JUPITER FERETRIUS (The Trophy-Bearer).
The first temple built in Rome by Romulus, to receive the spoils captured from Acron, King of Cænina.
"After the procession and sacrifice, Romulus built a small temple, on the top of the Capitoline Hill, to Jupiter, whom the Romans call Feretrius. For the ancient traces of it still remain, of which the longest sides are less than fifteen feet" (Dionysius, ii. 34. See Livy, i. 10).
It was enlarged A.U.C. 121 (Livy, i. 33); and was repaired by Augustus on the advice of Atticus (Nepos. See Livy, iv. 20).
Opposite the gate leading into the garden we can look over the parapet, down the scarped rock, to the base beneath, which is reached from below by taking the Via Tor dei Specchi on the right, looking towards the Capitol, and the Vicolo Rupe Tarpeia on the left. It was here that the terrible scene described in Hawthorne's "Transformation" took place.
The road leads to the New German Archæological Institute. It was about here that the messenger from Veii got into the citadel, and where the Gauls tried to do the same, when the sacred geese in Juno's temple awoke the garrison. The two bronze "geese" shown in the Hall of the Conservators are ducks.
Passing on under the archway, turn to the left; at a little distance the Via Monte Tarpeia turns off to the right—follow this; at the end, the house facing us is built up against the point of the hill used for the public executions.