On the other side of the double line are parts of two flights of an external staircase, a landing adjacent to them, and additional irregular spaces below. Examination together with frs. 31b and 31c provides more information. The two flights of stairs double back on one another with the landing at the hairpin turn. The features depicted with a double line along the side of each flight suggests that these are retaining walls on the uphill side of the staircases, and that the temples therefore stood at the top of the hill. Each flight alternates between groups of horizontal, parallel lines and unlined areas; these must be clusters of steps separated by short ramps. On the upper flight, following the direction of the staircase, are two long and narrow rectangles along the outside of the staircase, joined by a concave line that crosses the staircase. This is the standard way of representing an arch on the Plan (note that the Renaissance drawing of fr. 31b shows the entire arch: PM 1960, pl. 10). At the bottom right of this fragment are several irregularly-shaped spaces. These are separated from the open space to the left--the plateau at the top of the slope--by a double line which represents the upper retaining wall. These irregular spaces must therefore slope down quite steeply; they may represent gardens or other kinds of space on the steep slopes of the hill.

Identification: Centum gradus? Fragments 31a, 31b and 31c were positioned on this slab by L. Cozza on the basis of the thickness of the slab, the vein in the marble, and fr. 31a's position at the edge of slab (PM 1960, p. 91). Given this position on the Plan, these fragments must represent a complex of ramps and stairs on the SW slope of the Capitoline Hill. It has been argued that this is the centum gradus (one hundred steps), which was located below the Tarpeian Rock (Tac. Hist. 3.71; PM 1960, p. 91). However, this identification depends on the Tarpeian Rock having been at the SW corner of the Capitoline; given the ancient evidence that the Rock overlooked the Forum, this is not at all certain (LTUR I, pp. 237-238). The double lines that separate the two flights of stairs and that border the upper flight are retaining walls rising up from each flight. At the bottom of the hill, this system of stairs and ramps surely led to one of the gates in the republican walls, but it is not certain which one. (E. Rodríguez-Almeida has suggested that this was the archaic porta Carmentalis: LTUR I, p. 259). It will have formed an important passageway between the Capitoline and the markets and monuments below, including the Forum Holitorium, the Circus Flaminius and its surrounding victory temples, the Theater of Marcellus, and the riverfront.

Identification: Temples on the Capitoline hill The two temples depicted here stood on the SW corner of the Capitoline at the top of the flights of stairs. It is not known which of the Capitoline's many temples they represent.

Significance These fragments of the Forma Urbis--31a, 31b, 31c and 499--are unique evidence for the ancient organization of this portion of the Capitoline. The fragments contribute valuable information about the relationship and movement between the Capitoline and the important sector of the city just below its SW slopes. These fragments also provide our only surviving evidence for three otherwise unknown temples on the Capitoline, one of which may be the Temple of Fides (see fr. 499).

Text by Tina Najbjerg and Jennifer Trimble