Original scientific paper

Capitoline temples in Croatia

Marko Sinobad ; Ministarstvo kulture Uprava za zaštitu kulturne baštine, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Abstract

The prevailing view in Croatian and foreign scholarly literature
is that Roman cities with colony status had temples
dedicated to the Capitoline Triad, i.e. Jupiter Optimus
Maximus, Juno and Minerva, and that only colonies were
exclusively entitled to build these temples. The results of
more recent research raises doubts in this assertion, because
they indicate a much more complex situation than
that presented so far. In Croatia, a number of temples
have been identified as temples of the Capitoline Triad,
even though such conclusions are not sufficiently backed
by sound arguments. The cult of the Capitoline Triad lost
the significance it had during the Republic era after the
onset of the changes brought by the reign of Octavian, i.e.
Augustus. The strengthening of the role of the princeps in
the Roman Empire was also reflected in the imperial religion.
Even though the cult of the Capitoline Triad can
be followed until the third century, the focus of imperial
propaganda was placed on the ruler cult, particularly in
the first century. Since the central forum temples of Roman
cities and settlements were the principal disseminators of
imperial propaganda, the public cult observed in them
must be viewed in this context.

Keywords

Dalmatia; Istria; Pannonia; urban planning; Capitolium; Capitoline Triad; imperialism; propaganda

Hrčak ID:

26723

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/26723

Publication date:

22.8.2008.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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