The Capitolia of Roman North Africa

Naomi J. Norman (University of Georgia)

It is commonplace to think of North Africa as the most Romanized of the Roman provinces. One reason for this is the ubiquity of Roman religious facilities scattered throughout the North African provinces, including Capitolia, temples dedicated to the Capitoline triad (Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno and Minerva).

The Capitolia of Roman Africa are only loosely based on the Capitolium of Rome in plan and location. They usually stand not on a high hill as in Rome, but at one end of a large, rectangular forum. They appear relatively late in the urban development of North African cities and are frequently quite large and expensive. Indeed, one Capitolium was built with a gift of 600,000 HS, the highest building price known from Africa.

Capitolia were unusually popular in Africa: in fact, the African provinces have 20 definite and 17 probable Capitolia, while Italy has 19 definite Capitolia and the rest of the Empire has only 13. These statistics raise the question why this particular religious facility was so popular in the African provinces but relatively unpopular elsewhere in the Empire.

At least one African Capitolium did double duty, serving as a temple for the imperial cult as well as for the Capitoline triad. This combination of cult may account for some of the popularity, but we can not find evidence for a second cult in most of the African Capitolia. Another Capitolium was built using money contributed by both the local indigenous community and the Roman community. The interest of the indigenous community in this Capitolium suggests that the Capitoline cult tapped indigenous religious mentalities. Indeed, there is abundant evidence for triads in Punic religion, and a number of non-Roman shrines in North Africa exhibit the same tripartite cella that characterizes the African Capitolium.

This paper examines the evidence for Capitolia and non-Roman shrines in Roman Africa and argues that pre-Roman Punic religious triads created fertile ground for the establishment of Capitolia in the African provinces.