Rostra
Encyclopedia
The Rōstra was a large platform built in the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 that stood during the republican
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

 and imperial
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 periods. Speakers would stand on the rostra and face the north side of the comitium
Comitium
The Comitium in Rome is the location of the original founding of the city. The area is marked by a number of shrines, temples, altars and churches today from throughout its history. The location was lost due to the cities growth and development over a thousand years, but was excavated at the turn...

 towards the senate house and deliver orations to those assembled in between. It is often referred to as a suggestus or tribunal, the first form of which dates back to the Roman Kingdom
Roman Kingdom
The Roman Kingdom was the period of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a monarchical form of government of the city of Rome and its territories....

, the Volcanal.

It derives its name from the six rōstra (plural of rōstrum, a warship's ram
Ramming
In warfare, ramming is a technique that was used in air, sea and land combat. The term originated from battering ram, a siege weapon used to bring down fortifications by hitting it with the force of the ram's momentum...

) which were captured during the victory at Antium in 338 BC and mounted to its side. Originally, the term meant a single structure located within the Comitium
Comitium
The Comitium in Rome is the location of the original founding of the city. The area is marked by a number of shrines, temples, altars and churches today from throughout its history. The location was lost due to the cities growth and development over a thousand years, but was excavated at the turn...

 space near the Forum
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum...

 and usually associated with the Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

 Cūria
Curia
A curia in early Roman times was a subdivision of the people, i.e. more or less a tribe, and with a metonymy it came to mean also the meeting place where the tribe discussed its affairs...

. It began to be referred to as the Rōstra Vetera ("Elder Rōstra") in the imperial age to distinguish it from other later platforms designed for similar purposes which took the name "Rōstra" along with its builder's name or the person it honored.

History

Magistrates
Roman Magistrates
The Roman Magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the principal executive magistrate. His power, in practice, was absolute. He was the chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and the sole commander of the army...

, politicians, advocates and other orators spoke to the assembled people of Rome from this highly honored, and elevated spot. Consecrated by the Augur
Augur
The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds: whether they are flying in groups/alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of...

s as a templum, the original Rostra was built as early as the 6th century BC. This Rostra was replaced and enlarged a number of times but remained in the same site for centuries.

Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 rearranged the Comitium and Forum spaces and repositioned the Senate Curia at the end of the republican period. He moved the Rostra out of the Comitium when the Curia Cornelia was dismantled. This took away the commanding position the curia had held within the whole of the forum, having advanced extremely close to the Rostra during its last restoration. Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

, his grand-nephew and first Roman emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

, finished what Caesar had begun, as well as expanded on it. This "New Rostra" became known as the Rostra Augusti. What remains in the excavated forum today, next to the Arch of Septimus Severus has endured several restorations and alterations throughout its historical use. while a few different honorary names are attributed to those restorations, scholars, archeologist and the government of Italy recognise this platform as the "Rostra Vetera" encased inside the "Rostra Augusti".

The term "Rostrum", referring to a podium for a speaker is directly derived from the use of the term "Rostra". One stands in front of a Rostrum and one stands upon the Rostra. While, eventually, there were many rostra within the city of Rome and its republic and empire, then, as now, "Rostra" alone refers to a specific structure.
Before the Forum Romanum, the Comitium
Comitium
The Comitium in Rome is the location of the original founding of the city. The area is marked by a number of shrines, temples, altars and churches today from throughout its history. The location was lost due to the cities growth and development over a thousand years, but was excavated at the turn...

 was the first designated spot for all political and judicial activity and the earliest place of public assembly in the city. The people of Rome gathered here to listen to orators beginning with the "Kings" of Rome to Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

, delivering one of his epic orations. A succession of earlier shrines and altars is mentioned in early Roman writings as the first suggestum. It consisted of a shrine to the god Volcan
Volcán
Volcán is a town in the Chiriquí province of Panama.El Hato del Volcán is a town in the Bugaba District, Chiriqui Province, Republica de Panamá. It sits on an old lava flow from Volcan Baru, the highest point in Panama at 3,475 metres...

, that had two separate altars built at different periods. This early Etruscan mundus alter originally sat in front of a temple that would later be converted into the Curia Hostilia.

During the late Republic the rostra was used as a place to display the heads of defeated political enemies. Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...

 and consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna was a four-time consul of the Roman Republic, serving four consecutive terms from 87 to 84 BC, and a member of the ancient Roman Cinna family of the Cornelii gens....

 captured Rome in 87 BC and placed the head of the defeated consul, Gnaeus Octavius
Gnaeus Octavius
Gnaeus Octavius was a senator and later consul of the Roman Republic. His father, also called Gnaeus Octavius, was Consul in 128 BC.His uncle, Marcus Octavius, was a key figure in opposition to the reforms of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC...

, on the Rostra. The practice was continued on by Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as that of dictator...

 and Mark Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...

, who ordered that Cicero's hands and head be displayed on Caesar's Rostra after the orator's execution as part of the Proscription of 43 B.C.
Proscription
Proscription is a term used for the public identification and official condemnation of enemies of the state. It is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a "decree of condemnation to death or banishment" and is a heavily politically charged word, frequently used to refer to state-approved...

.

Caesar spoke from the Rostra in 67 BC in a successful effort to pass, over the opposition of the Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

, a bill proposed by the tribune Aulus Gabinius
Aulus Gabinius
Aulus Gabinius, Roman statesman and general, and supporter of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, was a prominent figure in the later days of the Roman Republic....

 (the Lex Gabinia
Lex Gabinia
In the law of ancient Rome, the Lex Gabinia of 67 BC granted Pompeius Magnus extraordinary proconsular powers in any province within 50 miles of the Mediterranean Sea...

) creating an extraordinary command for Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

 to eliminate piracy in the Mediterranean. Brutus and Cassius spoke from the Rostra to an unenthusiastic crowd in the Forum after the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC. Millar comments that during the late Republic, when violence became a regular feature of public meetings, physical control and occupation of the Rostra became a crucial political objective.

Tribal assemblies and tribunals

Until about 145 BC, the Comitium was the site for tribal assemblies (comitia tributa)
Tribal Assembly
The Tribal Assembly of the Roman Republic was the democratic assembly of Roman citizens. During the years of the Roman Republic, citizens were organized on the basis of thirty-five Tribes: Four Tribes encompassed citizens inside the city of Rome, while the other thirty-one Tribes encompassed...

 at which important decisions were taken, magistrates were elected and criminal prosecutions were presented and resolved by tribal voting. Before an assembly, the convening magistrate
Roman Constitution
The Roman Constitution was an uncodified set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The Roman constitution was not formal or even official, largely unwritten and constantly evolving. Concepts that originated in the Roman constitution live on in constitutions to this day...

, acting as augur
Augur
The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds: whether they are flying in groups/alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of...

, had to take the auspice
Auspice
An auspice is literally "one who looks at birds", a diviner who reads omens from the observed flight of birds...

s in the inaugurated area (templum) on the Rostra from which he was to conduct the proceedings. If the omen
Omen
An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change...

s were favorable and no other magistrate announced unfavorable omens, the magistrate summoned other magistrates and senators and directed a herald to summon the people. Heralds did so from the Rostra and from the City walls. During an assembly, magistrates, senators and private citizens spoke on pending legislation or for or against candidates for office. Before bills were presented for voting, a herald read them to the crowd from the Rostra. As the culmination of the process, the tribes were each called up to the templum on the Rostra to deliver their votes. After about 145 BC, the voting population of Rome grew too large for the Comitium, and tribal assemblies were then held at the opposite end of the Forum around the Temple of Castor, the steps of which served as an informal Rostra.

The Rostra was also used for meetings of courts. In Republican Rome, criminal prosecutions took place in the Forum either before a tribal assembly with a magistrate prosecuting (a procedure specified in the Twelve Tables
Twelve Tables
The Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centrepiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum...

 and the normal mode of prosecution in the middle Republic) or in a jury-court (quaestio de repetundis) established by statute and presided over by a magistrate with a jury (after 70 BC) of about 50-75 jurors. For trials held in the Comitium, the Rostra served as the tribunal upon which the magistrate sat in his curule chair
Curule chair
In the Roman Republic, and later the Empire, the curule seat was the chair upon which senior magistrates or promagistrates owning imperium were entitled to sit, including dictators, masters of the horse, consuls, praetors, censors, and the curule aediles...

 with a small number of attendants. "This was enough in itself to establish a court, though it was supplemented by benches (subsellia) for the jurors, the parties to the case, and their supporters." The circle of onlookers (corona) either stood or sat on nearby steps.

Vulcanal

Underneath the Lapis Niger
Lapis Niger
The Lapis Niger is an ancient shrine in the Roman Forum. Together with the associated Vulcanal it constitutes the only surviving remnants of the old Comitium, an early assembly area that preceded the Forum and is thought to derive from an archaic cult site of the 7th or 8th century BC.The black...

 is the Vulcanal
Vulcanal
The Shrine of Vulcan — or Vulcanal, or Volcanal — was an 8th century BC sacred precinct on the future site of the Roman Forum...

, an altar to the god Vulcan
Vulcan (mythology)
Vulcan , aka Mulciber, is the god of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes in ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism. Vulcan is usually depicted with a thunderbolt. He is known as Sethlans in Etruscan mythology...

, two pedestals, an honorary column base and an ancient stele, which is the oldest part of the shrine. This spot is defined as the first Suggestum. This shrine and altar faced out to the forum.

The original structure was built during the middle years of the Roman Republic in approximately 500 BC It subsequently became known as the "Rostra" after the end of the Latin War
Latin War
The Latin War was a conflict between the Roman Republic and its neighbors the Latin peoples of ancient Italy. It ended in the dissolution of the Latin League, and incorporation of its territory into the Roman sphere of influence, with the Latins gaining partial rights and varying levels of...

 in 338 BC when it was adorned with the prows (rostra) of ships captured from Antium as war trophies.

The Rostra was located on the south side of the Comitium opposite the Curia Hostilia (the original Senate house), overlooking both the Comitium and the Roman Forum. In addition to the prows of captured ships, the Rostra bore a sundial and, at various times, statues of such important political figures as Camillus
Marcus Furius Camillus
Marcus Furius Camillus was a Roman soldier and statesman of patrician descent. According to Livy and Plutarch, Camillus triumphed four times, was five times dictator, and was honoured with the title of Second Founder of Rome....

, Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as that of dictator...

 and Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

. Private citizens also erected a number of honorary columns and monuments on the Rostra and throughout the forum. At one point, the Senate threatened to have them removed if the donors did not do so themselves.

Rostra Vetera

In form, the original Rostra may have been a simple raised platform made of wood, similar to the roman tribunal. The Rostra had a curved form, possibly along the outer south rim of an Amphitheatre. The structure was described by Christian Charles Josias Bunsen
Christian Charles Josias Bunsen
Christian Charles Josias, Baron von Bunsen was a German diplomat and scholar.-Early life and education:Bunsen was born at Korbach, an old town in the little German principality of Waldeck....

, based on his examination of two Roman coins depicting the Rostra, as "a circular building, raised on arches, with a stand or platform on the top bordered by a parapet; the access to it being by two flights of steps, one on each side. It fronted towards the Comitium, and the rostrum were affixed to the back of it, on column supports. Its form has been in all the main points preserved in the ambones, or circular pulpits, of the most ancient churches, which also had two flights of steps leading up to them, one on the east side, by which the preacher ascended, and another on the west side, for his descent. Specimens of these old churches are still to be seen at Rome in the churches of St. Clement and S. Lorenzo fuori le mura.

Debate and confusion of architectural elements

Very few images survive depicting the pre-imperial period Rostra. Excavations show many layers of the comitium space and at least three separate stages of the Rostra. Disasters, such as fire and invasion destroyed the area and restorations never stayed faithful to the previous shape or form. Each consecutive restoration to the Rostra Vetera after its initial move into the forum gave the monument a new name only adding to the confusion. On top of these conflicting finds are further archaeological excavations in Republican settlements such as Cosa. The comitium excavated there was a completely circular stone amphitheatre located directly in front of the cities curia. It is believed that these settlements mirrored the architecture of Rome and that the Dictator Sulla rearranged the Roman Comitium in this manner and was copied by settlements of that time period. While this is not direct evidence, is does suggest that the hemicycle remains in the comitium of Rome are what is left of a similar structure.

In his book, "Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Late Roman Republic", author Robert Morstein-Marx has theorized that there may never have been a reorganization of the comitium by Sulla. His claim is that there simply is no evidence of such. Marx uses the work of archaeologist Einar Gjerstad diagrams to suggest that the Rostra Vetera itself was the only part of the comitium that was circular.

There are several depictions of a large Rostra during imperial times on a number of monuments in Rome. They had been associated with the Augustan rostra at one time, leading early researchers to conclude that the rostra represented in these illustrations was the same structure from the early republican period. However, discoveries from translated writings now show that a structure in the forum during initial excavations 100 years ago misidentified the "Rostra Diocletiani" as a medieval building and was torn down completely. This structure is now credited for most of these depictions.

While the remains in the forum are today referred to as the Rostra Augusti as identified through historic writings, it is still believed to be, at its core, the original Rostra Vetera. Named so during Caesar’s time only to distinguish it with reverence and honor. With the move, the structure becomes referred to as the Rostra Cesarean. When Augustus expands it, it becomes the Rostra Augusti. Since the time of Augustus Caesar, the Rostra was restored and expanded further with additional names linked to this same building.

Rostra Augusti

As part of his reconstruction of the Roman Forum in 44 BC, Julius Caesar is believed to have moved the republican Rostra Vetera. This Rostra, referred to as the "Caesarian Rostra" by archaeologists, reused and incorporated nearly all of the original Rostra. Located on the southwest side of the new Julian Forum (Forum Iulium), the new Rostra was no longer subordinated to the new Senate House of the time (Curia Cornelia); Caesar had it placed on the central axis of the Forum Iulium opposite the Temple of Caesar
Temple of Caesar
The Temple of Caesar or Temple of Divus Iulius also known as Temple of the Deified Julius Caesar, delubrum, heroon or Temple of the Comet Star, is an ancient structure in the Roman Forum of Rome, Italy, located near the Regia and the Temple of Vesta.-History:It was begun by...

. Left uncompleted at Caesar's death, Augustus finished and extended the new Rostra into a rectangle at the front. The new Rostra was called the "Rostra Vetera" to distinguish it from another Rostra, built by Augustus in 29 BC at the opposite end of the Forum. This Rostra was part of the Temple to the Divine Caesar and was decorated with the rams from the Battle of actium. The late John E. Stambaugh, professor of classics at Williams College, described the new arrangement as "a reflection of contemporary taste and the relentless Augustan desire for order."

Rostra Vandalica

As the Rostra Augusti incorporates the old Rostra vetera, so does the Rostra Vandalica to the Augustan monument. This portion is either a simple modification to lengthen the front of the old rostra or to give a space on it specifically for the common people of Rome. This add-on of simple brick, appears to be hastily and poorly constructed. It only constitutes a tiny section of the Rostra as a whole, but may well have given name to the entire structure at that time and not just that specific section as was common after restorations. The section also had the beaks of ships mounted on its front, but to what battle they would be attributed to is unclear as the Romans had no naval enemies at that time and may simply have been replicas fabricated to keep the exterior architectural elements the same. Even its marble veneer was of the same type as the rest of the structure, suggesting that it was not as noticeable an add on in ancient times.

A marble plaque with inscriptions has been located and replaced on top of the spot. Its odd placement and lower stance as well as the inscription itself have been the subject of much discussion and debate.

Rostra Ad Palmam/Domitian/Flavian Rostra

These names appear to simply be the Rostra Augusti renamed after subsequent restorations by those specific patrons. All writings refer to these in the same topographic location.

Site today

The structure visible today is the result of an early 20th-century restoration. Only the large brown tufa blocks are original and are believed to have been moved by Caesar from their original Comitium location. All of the stone masonry to the left, when facing the rostra, (which constitutes almost 90% of the visible structure) is a modern reconstruction using contemporary materials. Up until the early-to-mid-19th century the site was home to a group of ramshackle buildings, torn down after the Italian government purchased the land to excavate the forum monuments and structures. The brick add on to the structures right end was built at the time of Septimus Severus. Archaeologists continue to debate which Rostra the ruins represent, but they are commonly believed to be that of Julius Caesar and Augustus.

In contemporary news

In November 2008 heavy rain damaged the concrete covering that has been protecting the Vulcanal and its monuments located in the Imperial comitium space since the 1950s. This includes the stele accorded the name of "The Black Rock" or Lapis Niger
Lapis Niger
The Lapis Niger is an ancient shrine in the Roman Forum. Together with the associated Vulcanal it constitutes the only surviving remnants of the old Comitium, an early assembly area that preceded the Forum and is thought to derive from an archaic cult site of the 7th or 8th century BC.The black...

. The marble and cement covering is a mix of the original black marble, said to have been used to cover the site by Sulla, and modern cement used to create the covering and keeping the marble in place.

Professor Angelo Bottini, Superintendent of Archeology in Rome, stated that an awning or tent covering is in place to protect the ancient relics until the covering is repaired, giving tourists of this millennium a look at the original suggestum for the first time in 50 years.

Rostra Iulii

In 29 BC Augustus ordered the construction of another Rostra in front of the Temple of Caesar
Temple of Caesar
The Temple of Caesar or Temple of Divus Iulius also known as Temple of the Deified Julius Caesar, delubrum, heroon or Temple of the Comet Star, is an ancient structure in the Roman Forum of Rome, Italy, located near the Regia and the Temple of Vesta.-History:It was begun by...

, at the opposite end of the Forum Iulium from Caesar's Rostra. This was used as a tribunal and was adorned with the prows of galleys captured at the Battle of Actium
Battle of Actium
The Battle of Actium was the decisive confrontation of the Final War of the Roman Republic. It was fought between the forces of Octavian and the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC, on the Ionian Sea near the city of Actium, at the Roman...

.

Rostra Diocletiani

Located directly in front of the Temple of Caesar, this rostra was on the Roman forum
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum...

on the opposite side from the Rostra Augusti. It is approximately as large as the Augustan rostra but has several access doorways underneath the top platform. It is this rostra that has come to confuse researchers and historians because it was not known to exist even after the initial excavations of the forum. Due to a misinterpretation of the age of the structure and lack of translated written accounts as well as the different names given this structure and others incorrectly, nearly the entire rostra was torn down and dismissed as a medieval building. Until its discovery in the 20th century, many references and images of this structure were incorrectly attributed to Rostra Augusti and debate continues as to whether the form of the Augustin monument is correctly reconstructed. It is believed the Rostra Diocletiani is depicted on the Arch of Constantine and not the Augustan structure.

External links

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