Roman architecture has inspired generations of architects, and of its types, temples have been particularly influential. The same was also true in antiquity, and, for that reason, temples, according to John Stamper, tell us a great deal about the religious, political, and social history of the Roman world. But while the Romans built temples throughout the Mediterranean, Stamper focuses only on those of central Rome: their religious, social, and historical backgrounds and their architectural history and relationships. He begins with the sixth-century BC Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. From the beginning of the Republic through the late-fourth-century AD, it was Rome’s most prestigious shrine. After a summary of the monument’s history, its rediscovery, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century reconstructions (chapter 1), Stamper presents his own new reconstruction (chapter 2), one considerably smaller than those of previous scholars. The footprint of Stamper’s temple (about 115 Roman feet) equals those of earlier reconstructions, but Stamper’s building replaces their massive podiums with a terrace divided into three levels. Although dedicated by one of the first pair of consuls, the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was a regal project. Aristocrats sponsored the early Republican temples in the Forum (chapter 3). Successful nobles led armies,...