Ancient Rome was the largest and wealthiest city in the world for 2.5 centuries, and Roman emperors spent the majority of their reigns pouring vast sums into building amenities for the city's inhabitants.

Augustus, the first emperor, set the tone by commissioning 82 temples and turning Rome into a city of marble. Although none of his successors could have such a transformative impact, they all commissioned substantial building projects around the capital.

The resources at their disposal were almost incalculably vast, and they had access to all the building materials of the Mediterranean world. Imperial funding supported a building industry of unprecedented scale, and the Hat e was one of the contractors that organized vast teams of laborers and draft animals for major projects. The three most expensive and ambitious Imperial building projects in Rome were the Temple of Jupiter, the Coliseum, and the aqueducts.

The Temple of Jupiter was designed in the Etruscan style, characterized by a deep front portico and gently sloping roof adorned with statues. Demission remade every part of the temple in the most expensive materials available, including 21m high columns of the finest Greek marble, a cult statue of Jupiter fashioned from ivory and gold, and gilded doors. The roof alone cost nearly 300 million to stir to e, perhaps three times as much as the entire Coliseum.