On that spot, according to Livy 1.12.6, probably near or just outside the Porta, Romulus vowed to build the temple, if Jupiter caused the Romans to stop fleeing. And yet in Livy 10.36.11 the same story is told again about the consul Marcus Atilius Regulus, who made a similar vow in a similar situation, when the Romans were losing a battle against the Samnites in 294 BC, but they miraculously turned around, regrouped and held their ground against the enemy. Some scholars believe that the story of the earlier foundation by Romulus was a later pseudo-tradition.Watmough (1995/96), p. 88. Livy himself (10.37.15) explains that the earlier temple was merely a , that is, consecrated ground where a temple was to be built later.
