PANEL FROM THE ARCH OF MARCUS AURELIUS
There is one interesting feature of the Capitolium, which is not well known among those who do not make a profession of archæology. It was used as a place for advertising State acts, deeds, and documents, in order that the public might take notice of them and be informed of what was going on in the administrative, military, and political departments. This fact is known from a clause appended to imperial letters-patent by which veterans were honorably discharged from the army or navy, and privileges bestowed on them in recognition of their services. These deeds, known as diplomata honestæ missionis, were engraved on bronze tablets shaped like the cover of a book, the original of which was hung somewhere in the Capitolium, and a copy taken by the veteran to his home. The originals are all gone, having fallen the prey of the plunderers of bronze in Rome, but copies are found in great numbers in every province of the Roman empire from which men were drafted.[51] These copies end with the clause:—
"Transcribed (and compared or verified) from the original bronze tablet which is hung in Rome, in the Capitolium"—and here follows the designation of a special place of the Capitolium, such as,—
"On the right side of the shrine of the Fides populi romani" (December 11, a. d. 52).
"On the left side of the ædes Thensarum" (July 2, a. d. 60).
"On the pedestal of the statue of Quintus Marcius Rex, behind the temple of Jupiter" (June 15, 64).
"On the pedestal of the ara gentis Iuliæ, on the right side, the statue of Bacchus" (March 7, 71).
"On the vestibule, on the left wall, between the two archways" (May 21, 74).
"On the pedestal of the statue of Jupiter Africus" (December 2, 76).