Capitoline Hill

Rome, Italy

The Capitoline Hill and Capitoline Museums

The Capitoline Hill, between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel (equivalent of the ancient Greek acropolis) of the earliest Romans.

The Capitoline contains few ancient ground-level ruins, as they are almost entirely covered up by Medieval and Renaissance palaces (now housing the Capitoline Museums) that surround a piazza, a significant urban plan designed by Michelangelo.

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Mamertine Prison II

The Mamertine Prison is an ancient prison at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in Rome.

The Mamertine Prison consists of two gloomy underground cells where Rome's vanquished enemies were imprisoned and usually died, of either starvation or strangulation. Famous prisoners here include the Goth Jugurtha, the indomitable Gaul Vercingetorix and, according to legend, St. Peter.

It remains a pilgrimage site today and a church, San Giuseppe dei Falegnami, now stands over the prison.

Notable people who were imprisoned at the Tulianum

Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura. Catiline co-conspirator. Executed with other conspirators.
Herennius Siculus. Gracchan sympathizer, hit his head on an architrave in his cell and died before he could be executed.
Quintus Pleminius. Propraetor. Arrested then exiled after fell from power.
Gaius Pontius. Leader of the Samnites during the Second Samnite War. Arrested and executed.
Vercingetorix. Leader of the Gauls during the Gallic War. Executed at Caesar's Triumph in 46 BC.
Adiatorix. Tetrarch of Galatia. Imprisoned there for having put all Roman colonists to death at Heracleia.
Jugurtha. King of Numidia. Died of starvation there in 104 BC.
St. Paul.
St. Peter. Imprisoned there before being crucified. According to legend performed baptisms in a spring at the bottom of the pit.
Sejanus. Soldier and confidant of the Emperor Tiberius. Fell from power, was imprisoned there and then executed.
Simon bar Giora. Jewish revolutionary leader. Captured in Judea and brought to Rome to be displayed during the triumphal procession. Executed in 70 AD.

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The Capitoline Museums are a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, facing on the central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over a period of more than 400 years. The history of the museums can be traced to 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of important ancient bronzes to the people of Rome and located them on Capitoline Hill. Since then, the museums' collection has grown to include a large number of ancient Roman statues, inscriptions, and other artifacts; a collection of medieval and Renaissance art; and collections of jewels, coins, and other items. The museums are owned and operated by the municipality of Rome.

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