Temple of Jupiter Tonans

As you walk toward this small temple, you hear the chiming of bells attached to the facade. The temple itself is a small but exquisite structure of polished marble constructed in the Greek style. The sanctuary doors, thrown open because of the festival, reveal the cult statue of Jupiter made by the Greek sculptor Leochares; the bearded god stands tall, leaning on his scepter and holding a thunderbolt in his right hand. This coin of Augustus, minted in Spain in 19/18 BCE, shows the emperor's pride in his new temple.

Augustus vowed to build this temple to Jupiter Tonans ("the Thunderer") in 26/25 BCE, when he was on campaign in Spain and was grazed by lightning but miraculously spared, though the slave carrying a torch to light his way was killed. He used to visit this temple frequently, calling attention to the divine favor that was shown him (similarly, the later emperor Trajan issued a coin showing Jupiter protectively holding a thunderbolt over his head with the legend "to the savior of the Father of the Fatherland" to commemorate an incident in 115 CE when he miraculously escaped from a building destroyed by an earthquake). This Capitoline temple could be interpreted as "stealing the thunder" from the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and Augustus' action of moving the Sibylline Books from the latter temple to his new Temple of Apollo on the Palatine could be seen in the same way.

However, Augustus was a superb propagandist; like modern politicians, he cleverly put a favorable "spin" on such interpretations by affixing a line of bells on the facade of the temple. This is how Suetonius tells the story:

Cum dedicatam in Capitolio aedem Tonanti Iovi assidue frequentaret, somniavit, queri Capitolinum Iovem cultores sibi abduci, seque respondisse, Tonantem pro ianitore ei appositum; ideoque mox tintinnabulis fastigium aedis redimiit, quod ea fere ianuis dependebant. (Divus Augustus 91)

Since Augustus frequently visited the Temple of Jupiter the Thunderer, which he had dedicated on the Capitoline, he dreamed that Jupiter Capitolinus complained that worshipers were being stolen away from him. Augustus replied that the Thunderer had been put there as a doorkeeper for him, and so he soon encircled the gable of the temple with bells, because these generally hang from doors.