sessions either in the Forum or in the neighboring basilicas. 147. Comitium. The Comitium was an open square of moderate dimensions, situated on the north side of the Forum toward its west end. For centuries after the establishment of the republic it was the center of the public life of the state, but in the second century B.C. public business was transferred to the Forum; see plan of Rome. 148. Rostra Vetera. The ancient Rostra, the Rostra Vetera, dating from the fifth century B.C., was the platform from which the orator throughout the republican period addressed the people in their various assemblies. It stood on the border line between the Comitium and the Forum, and it could be used in addressing an assembly on either side of it. It was ornamented with beaks, rostra, of the war vessels captured at Antium in 338 B.C. 149. Curia Hostilia. - The Roman Senate House, the Curia Hostilia, was a stone structure eighty-five feet long and seventy-five feet wide. It was situated on the northeast side of the Comitium. It was originally furnished in the most simple manner, containing the speaker's chair, several rows of benches, and a small apartment for archives. It had no artificial heat either in summer or winter. The Roman senate met in this primitive building until it was burned by the partisans of Clodius in 52 B.C. Eight years later Julius Caesar was commissioned to rebuild it under the name of Curia Julia. The new building was finally completed and dedicated by Augustus in the year 29 B.C. It was badly damaged in the conflagration in the reign of Nero, and two centuries later it was burned to the ground. It was subsequently reconstructed under the name Senatus. This building, the final reconstruction of the Curia Hostilia, is now the Church of St. Adria see the accompanying illustration. 150. Temple of Concord. The Temple of Concord erected according to tradition by Camillus to commemo rate the reconciliation of the patricians and plebeians in 367 B.C., stood at the foot of the Clivus Capitolinus between the Temple of Saturn and the Tullianum. The senate sometimes met in this temple, and in it Cicer delivered his fourth oration against Catiline. In its fina 1 Taken by permission from Lanciani's Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries. |