The political interest of the Romans had been aroused, they had found their life-work, their career was opening before them, and it must not be supposed that the reflex action of this new political spirit on the religious world was confined to the building of two league temples, one to Juppiter Latiaris on the Alban Mount, miles away from Rome, and one to Diana outside the pomerium over in the woods of the Aventine.  This political interest was no artificial acquisition, but the inevitable expression of an instinct.  It must therefore find its representation inside the city, in connexion with a deity who was already deep in the hearts of the people.  This deity could be none other than the sky-father Juppiter, who had stood by them in the old days of their exclusively farming life, sending them sunshine and rain in due season.  Up on the Capitoline he was worshipped as Feretrius, “the striker,” in his most fearful attribute as the god of the lightning.  To him the richest spoils of war (spolia opima) were due, and to him the conqueror gave thanks on his return from battle.  It was this Juppiter of the Capitoline who was chosen to be the divine representative of Rome’s political ambition; and her confidence in the future, and the omen of her inevitable success lay in the cult-names, the cognomina, with which this Juppiter was henceforth and forever adorned, Juppiter Optimus Maximus.  These adjectives are no mere idle ornament, no purely pleasant phraseology; they express not merely the excellence of Rome’s Juppiter but his absolute superiority to all other Juppiters, including Juppiter Latiaris.  And so while Rome with one hand was building a temple for the league on the Alban Mount, merely as a member of the league, with the other hand she was building a temple in the heart of her city to a god who was to bring into subjection to himself all other gods who dared to challenge his supremacy, just as the city which paid him honour was to overcome all other cities which refused to acknowledge her.  From henceforth Juppiter Optimus Maximus represents all that is most truly Roman in Rome.  It was under his banner that her battles were fought, it was to him in all time to come that returning generals gave thanks.

Tradition sets the completion of the Capitoline temple in the first year of the republic, but the idea and the actual beginning of the work belong to the later kingdom and hence to our present period, and the contemplation of it forms a fitting close to the development which we have tried to sketch.  And now that this part of our work is over it may be well to ask ourselves what we have seen, for there have been so many bypaths which we have of necessity explored, that the main road we have travelled may not be entirely distinct in our mind.  In the period which corresponds to the later kingdom, and roughly to the sixth century before Christ, and which we have called “Servian” for convenience, we have watched a primitive pastoral