Q . LVTATIVS . Q. F. Q. N. CATVLVS . COS . SVBSTRVCTIONEM . ET . TABVLARIVM . EX . SEN . SENT . FACIENDVM . COERAVIT . EADEMQVE . PROBAVIT .
The remains form the substructions of the present Capitol, or senator's residence, consisting of a massive wall of Gabii stone 240 feet long and 37 feet high, supporting the portico on the side of the Forum, which consisted of a series of arches, 23 feet by 15 feet, ornamented with sixteen Doric columns. Below this portico or arcade are a series of small chambers, with windows looking into the Forum, opening out of one another, approached by a short flight of steps, and probably used to store the records. At the back of the arcade are a series of large vaulted rooms or offices. At one end a grand flight of steps (repaired) leads up into what has been a grand arcade on the side of the Area Capitolina: its piers now partly sustain the modern building. At the farther end of this arcade is a flight of steep travertine steps, sixty-seven in number, leading down into the Forum, the exit to which has been blocked up by the Temple of Vespasian being built against the entrance.
This building must have presented a grand front to the Forum in the olden time, though now it only sustains the buildings of Michael Angelo. In 1389–1394, Pope Boniface IX. first erected on the Capitoline Hill, on the ruins of the Tabularium, a residence for the senator and his assessors. The prospect was altered so that what was the front became the back, and it faced on to what was anciently the Area Capitolina, now the Piazza del Campidoglio, instead of the Forum.
The north side wall seems to have been cut down when the present edifice was erected, as outside the present wall are the remains of the ancient one; thus it was somewhat longer than we now see it. In the sort of vestibule which gives admittance to the chambers under the portico are remains of stairs, evidently leading up to some chambers above the portico. These were probably not very lofty, so that the view of the temples on the hill was not shut out from the Forum, or perhaps they only led up to the flat roof above the arcade.
These old remains have been used as a prison and as a salt store, which latter has eaten the stone away in a curious manner. It is now used as a museum of fragments. The arches of the portico were filled in when the great master utilized it. Although we know an arch is as strong as a wall, it is feared to open them, and one only has been so treated.
Suetonius tells us: "Vespasian undertook to restore the three thousand tablets of brass which had been destroyed in the fire which consumed the Capitol; searching in all quarters for copies of those curious and ancient records, in which were contained the decrees of the senate almost from the building of the city, as well as the acts of the people relative to alliances, treaties, and privileges granted to any person" (Vespasian, viii.).
Pliny (xxxiv. 21) says: "It is upon tablets of brass that our public enactments are engraved."
From the Tabularium a new iron stair leads up to
THE TOWER OF THE CAPITOL,
whence a fine view of Rome and its environs can be enjoyed, standing, as it were, between ancient and medieval Rome. It is the best position for study in the world.