Capitol

The Capitol is Dougga's most photographed monument, and rightly so: a six-columned Corinthian portico, fluted shafts in honey-gold limestone, supporting a complete pediment with traces of carved relief. The interior cella once held colossal statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva — the Capitoline triad — of which only fragments survive in the Bardo Museum in Tunis.

Built in the 2nd century AD on the south side of the Forum, the temple stands on an artificial terrace cut into the hillside. The view from the steps down onto the forum and out across the olive groves is one of the great Roman views in the Mediterranean. The image of the Capitol appears on the Tunisian 5-dinar banknote — try to spot it before you arrive.

things to do sight architecture
A story
The Capitol's dedicatory inscription, still legible across its frieze, names the brothers Marcus and Lucius Marcius as the patrons who paid for it in AD 166–167 'for the safety of the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus'. The two emperors were then at war with the Parthians in Mesopotamia. By the time the building was finished, Lucius Verus was dead. The temple thus stands as a private monument to a public hope that did not quite hold.