Poor Richard’s Almanac

It’s me, Richard Saunders of Poor Richard’s Almanac fame, here today to have a little chat with you about those wretched spelling bugabears, ”capital” and “capitol.” I’d invited our friend Ben and Silence Dogood out for dinner on their return from a weekend in our nation’s capital, and got quite an earful about their trip (as you did, too, if you read our friend Ben’s post “An encounter with history”). I of course felt that, after a weekend of great Thai food with their friend Susan and platters of gourmet delicacies at our friend Ben’s brother’s house, it was time to sober up with some good old-fashioned pizza.

While we were eating—trying, of course, not to hog too many slices; why is it that no matter how big the pizza, there never seems to be enough?! (”No, please, you take the last slice…”)—and Silence was talking about how beautiful and imposing the Capitol looked silhouetted against the setting sun, I began to wonder. Like you, I remembered that the seat of our Congress was spelled “Capitol,” while the city that housed our nation’s government, as well as all the cities that house our states’ governments, are spelled “capital.” But why?

I decided it was time to find out. Turns out that “Capitol” refers specifically to “a set of buildings in which a legislature meets,” and the spelling derives from the Capitoline Hill in Rome, where the Roman Senate met. (Thank you, Wikipedia!) But how did the Roman hill receive its name? Not from the Senate, you may be sure! Strange as it may seem, the Capitoline Hill was named after a skull (Latin caput, head) uncovered during excavations for a Temple of Jupiter ordered by the fifth king of Rome, Tarquin the Elder, ca. 616-579 B.C. (This was one busy guy—he also was responsible for the construction of the Roman Forum and the Circus Maximus.)

If it strikes you as ironic that the Capitoline Hill in Rome and Golgotha, the “place of a skull” where those same Romans crucified Christ, are both named because of skulls found on their sites, let’s just say you aren’t alone. And our Capitol building shares that legacy today. Maybe if our Congressmen were more aware of this history, they’d take their responsibilities more seriously! The name of their building provides not just a link to the past, and a link to life and death via the skull symbolism, but also to God in the form of God the Father (Jupiter) and Jesus Christ. The word “Capitol” is a good reminder of both transience and eternity, and our tenuous place in the balance between them.