Fasti Capitolini

[1][2] The Capitoline Fasti were originally engraved on marble tablets erected in the Roman forum.

The main portions were discovered in a fragmentary condition, and removed from the forum in 1546, as ancient structures were dismantled to produce material for the construction of St. Peter's Basilica.

[3][4] Together with the histories of writers such as Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the Capitoline Fasti form one of the primary sources for Roman chronology.

[3][6] The Annales Maximi, records of Roman history from the earliest period to the late second century BC, and one of the sources consulted by ancient historians, were stored in the Regia.

[2][3] In 1540, Pope Paul III authorized the recycling of stone from the forum for the construction of St. Peter's Basilica.

The work was carried out by a company of local quarrymen, with little regard for the archaeological value of the ancient structures, but the scholars Onofrio Panvinio and Pirro Ligorio observed the demolition, and noticed a portion of the fasti still embedded between pilasters in a wall.

[13] The Capitoline Fasti were first transcribed and published by Marliani at Rome in 1549, Sigonius at Modena in 1550, and Robortelli at Venice in 1555.

The current reconstruction is part of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, appearing in the first volume, and since amended several times.

[11][12] Although some scholars have questioned the accuracy of the Capitoline Fasti, particularly with regard to the earliest portion, the overall chronology is remarkably consistent from one source to the next, and all of the Roman historians and annalists place the beginning of the Republic within a span of about seven or eight years.

[18] The so-called "anarchy" earlier in the fourth century is less easily explained, since the story of this period is corroborated in multiple accounts, including Livy and Diodorus Siculus, but the length of time that Rome was without annual magistrates may have been exaggerated; perhaps only one year, as stated by Diodorus.

The Sala della Lupa in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, with the Capitoline Wolf in the foreground, and behind her an entablature of the Fasti Capitolini , one of several in the hall.
Re-assembled fragments of the Fasti Capitolini , in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill. The large inscription at top is a modern dedication.
A portion of the Fasti Capitolini, running from 264 to 172 BC. In the upper left corner are Appius Claudius Caudex and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, consuls in 264, at the beginning of the First Punic War , and in the lower right are Gaius Popillius Laenas and Publius Aelius Ligus, the first pair of plebeian consuls, in 172.