Its reconstruction employed craftsmen summoned from Greece, and the new building is presumed to have been essentially Greek in style, though like other Roman temples it retained many elements of Etruscan form.

[11] According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Livy, the foundations and most of the superstructure of the temple were completed by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last King of Rome.

[19] The cult statue of Jupiter showed the god standing and wielding a thunderbolt, dressed in a tunica palmata (a tunic decorated with images of palm leaves), and the toga picta, dyed purple and bearing designs in gold thread.

[20] The wooden elements of the roof and lintels were lined with terracotta revetment plaques and other elements of exceptional size and richly decorated with painted reliefs, following the so-called Second Phase model (referring to the decorative systems of Etruscan and Latin temples), that had its first expression precisely with the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

The removed material was dumped into the layers forming the square in front of the temple, the so-called Area Capitolina, in the middle years the 2nd century BC.

Over the years the temple accrued countless statues and trophies dedicated by victorious generals, and in 179 some of these attached to the columns were removed to lessen the clutter.

After taking the linen cuirass off Tolumnius' body, he decapitated the corpse and put the head on a lance and paraded it in front of the enemy, who retreated in horror.

Cossus donated the captured armour, shield and sword to the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitoline Hill, where as late as the reign of Emperor Augustus it could be seen.

Also lost in this fire were the Sibylline Books, which were said to have been written by classical sibyls, and stored in the temple (to be guarded and consulted by the quindecimviri (council of fifteen) on matters of state only in emergencies.

Sulla hoped to live until the temple was rebuilt, but Quintus Lutatius Catulus Capitolinus had the honor of dedicating the new structure in 69 BC.

[28] The second building burnt down during the course of fighting on the hill on 19 December of 69 CE, when an army loyal to Vespasian battled to enter the city in the Year of the Four Emperors.

It was taller than the previous structures, with a Corinthian order and statuary including a quadriga atop the gable and bigae driven by figures of Victory on either side at the base of the roof.

A Renaissance drawing of a damaged relief in the Louvre Museum shows a four-horse chariot (quadriga) beside a two-horse chariot (biga) to the right of the latter at the highest point of the pediment, the two statues serving as the central acroterion, and statues of the god Mars and goddess Venus surmounting the corners of the cornice, serving as acroteria.

In the 4th century, Ammianus Marcellinus referred to the temple as "the Capitolium, with which revered Rome elevates herself to eternity, the whole world beholds nothing more magnificent.

[33] Today, portions of the temple podium and foundations can be seen behind the Palazzo dei Conservatori, in an exhibition area built in the Caffarelli Garden, and within the Musei Capitolini.

[37] The second Medici lion was sculpted in the late 16th century by Flaminio Vacca from a capital from the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

[38] The Area Capitolina was the precinct on the southern part of the Capitoline that surrounded the Temple of Jupiter, enclosing it with irregular retaining walls following the hillside contours.

The sacred geese of Juno, said to have sounded the alarm during the Gallic siege of Rome, were kept in the Area,[42] which was guarded during the Imperial period by dogs kept by a temple attendant.

[43] Underground chambers called favissae held damaged building materials, old votive offerings, and dedicated objects that were not suitable for display.

[45] In late antiquity, it was a market for luxury goods, and continued as such into the medieval period: in a letter from 468, Sidonius Apollinaris describes a shopper negotiating over the price of gems, silk, and fine fabrics.