CHAP. V. the Rostra, if he was advancing opinions hostile to the policy of the Senate.544

History of the first Rostra.

The Rostra, thus advantageously placed for the influence of the nobles, was the scene of the long struggle between the aristocratic and democratic elements of the Roman constitution. It was from these Rostra that the Gracchi advocated their laws. Here, according to the story told by Livy, Africanus was arraigned by the tribunes, and, having summoned the whole people to the Capitol to give thanks to the gods for his former victories, left his accusers alone upon the Rostra.5 From the same place Cicero spoke his second and third Catilinarian orations. During the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus, when the former found the senate determinately opposed to his measures, he closed the Curia and brought all his legislation before the people. On one occasion in the midst of these contests, Vatinius the tribune made a bridge with the platforms of the tribunals, by which he took the Rostra by storm,

6

...

544 Κατὰ τοῦτον γέ τοι νόμον ἄνδρες ἐπιφανεῖς δημηγορίας διεξιόντες ἐπὶ τῶν ἐμβόλων ἐναντιας μὲν τῇ βούλῃ κεχαρισμένας δὲ τοῖς δημοτικοῖς κατασπασθέντες ἀπὸ τοῦ βήματος ἀπήχθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν πατέρων, κτλ. Dionys. ii. 26.

5 Tribuni in Rostris prima luce consederunt. Citatus reus . . . per mediam concionem ad Rostra subiit. . . Ab Rostris se universa concio avertit et secuta Scipionem est; adeo ut postremo scribae viatoresque tribunos relinquerent. Liv. xxxviii. 51.

* Καὶ βουλὴν μὲν οὐκέτι συνῆγεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἔτος ὅλον, ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ἐμβόλων idnμnyópe. Appian. Bell. Civ. ii. 10.

ASSOCIATIONS OF THE FIRST ROSTRA.

201

and put Bibulus under arrest. Cicero, three years CHAP. V. after, in denouncing the disturbances which took place in the Forum on the day on which his own recal from exile was proposed, when his brother was driven from the Rostra, and almost lost his life, gives a lively picture of what had been common in the recollection of his hearers. "You remember," he says, "the Tiber filled with corpses, the drains choked, the blood sponged from the Forum." Stone-throwing we have often seen; not so often, though too frequently, swords drawn; but such a massacre, such heaps of human bodies, who ever saw in the Forum, unless perhaps on that day of Cinna and Octavius ?"8

66

The Rostra of the Comitium were already associated with some of the most terrible atrocities of history. The heads of the consul Octavius and of the chiefs of the aristocracy put to death by Marius and Cinna were hung in front of the Rostra; and in the retribution of Sulla similar horrors were repeated."

fecerisne ante Rostra pontem

547 Volo uti mihi respondeas, continuatis tribunalibus, per quem Consul populi Romani, non in carcerem, sed ad supplicium et ad necem duceretur. Cic. in Vatin. ix. 21.

8

(Frater meus) pulsus e Rostris in Comitio iacuit Meministis, tum, iudices, corporibus civium Tiberim compleri, cloacas referciri, e foro spongiis effingi sanguinem. . . Lapidationes persaepe vidimus, non ita saepe sed nimium tamen saepe gladios, caedem vero tantam, tantos acervos corporum exstructos, nisi forte illo Cinnano atque Octaviano die, quis unquam in foro vidit? Cic. p. Sext. xxxv. xxxvi.

9

App. Bell. Civ. i. 71, 94; Dio Cass. frag. 119, 139; Florus, iii. 21.

CHAP. V.

funerals at

Upon the same Rostra the body of Sulla was

Public placed in his funeral ceremony, as those of Julius the Rostra. and Augustus were deposited upon the later Rostra of the Forum. The body of Clodius was also placed upon the old Rostra before it was burnt by the populace in the Curia.550

Rostra between

B.C. 44.

The Rostra of the Comitium continued in use until the destruction of the Curia upon the occasion last mentioned, B.C. 52.

During that

scene of tumult one of the tribunes continued to address the mob from the suggestum till he was scorched, as Cicero sarcastically describes it, by the fire which was burning at his back.1

During the eight years which followed the B.C. 52 and destruction of the Curia Hostilia, the site of that monument underwent a series of alterations, which have been described in a previous chapter.2 Whether the old Rostra continued in use in spite of the disturbance around them, we have no information.

Removal of the Rostra,

B.C. 44.

We learn from Dio, that in the last year of Caesar's dictatorship, B.C. 44, the Rostra were removed to the position which they still occu550 Appian. Bell. Civ. ii. 21.

...

1 Declarant huius ambusti tribuni plebis illae intermortuae conciones, etc. Cic. pro Mil. 5. Tribuni plebis . . . concionati sunt eo ipso tempore quo propter Clodii corpus Curia incensa est, nec prius destiterunt quam flamma eius incendii fugati sunt e concione. Erant enim tunc Rostra non eo loco quo nunc sunt, sed ad Comitium prope iuncta Curiae. Ob hoc T. Munatium ambustum tribunum appellat. Asconius ad Cic. ib.

2 See p. 153.

pied in the time of the historian, having been CHAP. V. previously, as he informs us, somewhere in the middle of the Forum.553 Whether the locality last mentioned refers to some temporary position occupied by the Rostra after the destruction of the Curia Hostilia, or whether, as is more probable, it is a loose description of their ancient site between the Comitium and the Forum, it is impossible to say; but it may be observed that Appian uses similar language to describe the latter locality in speaking of the head of the younger Marius being hung before the Rostra.* It is possible that neither Appian nor Dio were acquainted with the precise site of the ancient Rostra, which had become in the time of the Antonines a mere matter of archaeology.

The new Rostra were adorned with beaks of ships, which were believed to be the same relics of the navy of the ancient Latins that had decorated the old suggestum.5

A gilded equestrian statue of Sulla, and a Statues

553 Καὶ τὸ βῆμα, ἐν μέσῳ που πρότερον τῆς ἀγορᾶς ὄν, ἐς τὸν νῦν τόπον ȧvexwpioon. Dio. Cass. xliii. 49.

4 Καὶ αὐτὴν (Μαρίου τὴν κεφαλὴν ὁ Σύλλας ἐν ἀγορᾷ μέσῃ πρὸ τῶν ἐμβόλων θέμενος ἐπιγελάσαι λέγεται τῇ νεότητι τοῦ ὑπάτου, κτλ. Appian. Bell. Civ. i. 94. The heads appear to have been hung upon the βῆμα itself. Compare Dio, frag. 139, Αἱ κεφαλαὶ ἐς τὴν τῶν Ρωμαίων ἀγορὰν ἐκομίζοντο, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος ἐξετίθεντο, and Appian. Bell. Civ. i. 71 (of the head of Octavius) ἐκρεμάσθη πρὸ τῶν ἐμβόλων ἐν ayopa, where the historian observes that this precedent was followed in later massacres.

5 Florus. i. 11. (Note 536.)

at the

Rostra.

CHAP. V. statue of Pompey, had formerly stood in front of the ancient suggestum, but had been displaced by the people. These were restored upon the erection of the new Rostra. An inscription, which attributed the restoration to the consul Antony, only served to increase the glory of Caesar, to whom alone such liberality could be ascribed.556 On this restitution Cicero is said to have made the epigrammatic remark, that in setting up Pompey's statues Caesar strengthened the foundation of his own. Two statues of Julius himself adorned the same monument, one with a civic chaplet as the saviour of his fellow-citizens, the other with an obsidional crown as the successful defender of Rome.8

History of the second Rostra.

7

The evidence of Dio is important to show that the Rostra, after the one removal which he records, remained on the same spot for nearly three centuries, that is to say, during all the remaining period that any interest attached to such an institution. It was upon the Rostra in their new site that Caesar sat in purple upon a throne of gold, when Antony offered him the diadem, and a groan echoed through the Forum. From the

556 Dio Cass. xlii. 18, xliii. 49; Plutarch. Caes. 57; Sueton. Iul. 75. 7 Plutarch. Caes. 57; Id. Apophthegm. (ed. Reiske, p. 774.) 8 Dio Cass. xliv. 4. Other statues at the Rostra have been already mentioned in Chapter II. See p. 86-89.

• Sedebat in Rostris collega tuus, amictus toga purpurea, in sella aurea, coronatus. Adscendis, accedis ad sellam; ita eras Lupercus ut te consulem esse meminisse deberes; diadema ostendis; gemitus