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Comitium
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The comitium was an area of the Ancient Roman Forum. The space was considered to be the customary place for all political and judicial activity. It began as an open courtyard in front of the Curia Hostilia, in which the Senate typically worked, but was reduced in size twice in consecutive order by Cornelius Sulla and again by Julius Caesar.
appearance of the comitium changed considerably at various times.
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Encyclopedia
The comitium was an area of the Ancient Roman Forum. The space was considered to be the customary place for all political and judicial activity. It began as an open courtyard in front of the Curia Hostilia, in which the Senate typically worked, but was reduced in size twice in consecutive order by Cornelius Sulla and again by Julius Caesar.
History
The appearance of the comitium changed considerably at various times. It is always associated with the senate meeting house or curia up until Julius Caesar's redesign of that building and the Forum Romanum. It may have begun as the meeting place for the people of Rome to be addressed by their King. It is said that the King of Rome would stand upon the altar of Vulcanal to speak.
When Rome became a Republic, the altar may have served as a podium for senators and orators. From this basic spot came the Rostra, a platform for the great speakers of the Republic that sat in front of the curia. It is not known who built the original curia, but all subsequent structures stayed within its original orientation until the Curia Julia.
Begun as an open square, it later had sunken rounded steps creating an amphitheater that was added and then buried or leveled, possibly because of the city's ban on theaters inside the city. This could be from orators stirring up violent mobs during speeches at the Rostra in the Comitium.
At the edge of the Comitium was the Rostra, from which speeches were delivered. As the population grew and not all Romans could fit in the Comitium, speakers in the later Republic would turn their backs on the curia and crowds within the comitium and direct their speech from the Rostra to the crowd in the Forum. Because of reconfigurations, little of the Comitium can be seen today.
Plutarch says in the life of Gaius Gracchus that up until the time of Gaius Gracchus, orators would face the Comitium while speaking. According to Plutarch, the senate was located in the direction of the Comitium (to the right of the orator) while the people where located in the opposite direction (to the left).
This area was sacred long before the Republic as a meeting place of the Roman People. Eventually a curia house was built and the Roman Republican Senate began governing. The first of the Republican Curias was the Curia Hostilia which sat in this area aligned to the points of the compass. An official would walk out between the Rostra and the Lapis Niger at midday to mark the moment.
From this area sprang an idea of which we still see today in pulpits. A raised platform for speakers with ascending and descending stairs on either side. The first structure to be called "Rostra" was on the south east section of the forecourt of the Curia Hostilia after ships breaks were attached to the support to a platform were Roman citizens spoke, either to the senste which the could face or the crowd in the forum. The original Rostra may well have been the Vulcanal which was buried under the Lapis Niger.
The Lapis Niger is within the comitium. Buried under slabs of black marble is the Vulcanal which may have originally served as an alter to Vulcan. The base of an honorary column and a Stele with the earliest Latin inscription ever found referring to a "King", or "Rex" along with small votive staues and curses warning anyone who may disturb the site. It was likely destroyed in a fire or sacking of the city, was buried along with the rest of the site to raise the level above the remains, common in Ancient Rome. In this spot only was the black marble slabs which had a small retaining wall to keep people off.
Graecostasis
There existed another grandstand within the comitium beside the Rostra. Its exact use is debated; however, it is likely that it was used for visiting ambassadors who were forbidden from entering the curia. Its placement on the west side of the comitium is also debated - however, it may well be placed so those in attendance in the stands could listen to the speakers on the Rostra as well as still face the curia.
The Carcer
The Roman prison. Its odd shape is derived by necessity to fit it within the archaic comitium next to a street. Its original intention is not clear. There is a well on the lower level. It was thought to be a tomb and may have served as such at one time.
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