A Hill of Many Names: The Capitolium from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages

The Capitoline Hill was Rome’s Holy Mountain. This sanctity persisted for centuries because of the lingering significance of the hill’s many names: Capitolium, Tarpeain Rock, Arx, Asylum, and others. The memory of events associated with these terms and the localization of them on the hill itself made the Capitolium and its history continuously visible, both literally and figuratively, during the period of precipitous decline in the urban landscape from late antiquity through the middle ages.