Saepta Julia

The Saepta Julia was a building in the ancient city of Rome beginning during the rein of Julius Caesar (d.44 BCE). The building was originally built as a place for the comitia tributa to gather to cast votes(1). It replaced an older structure, called the Ovile (2), which served the same function. Located in the Campus Marius, the Saepta Julia was built of marble and surrounded a huge rectangular space (c.300 ´95 m)(3) next to the Pantheon. The building was planned by Julius Caesar who wanted it to be built of marble and have a mile long portico according to a letter by Cicero to his friend Atticus about the building project (Cic. Att 4.16.14). The quadriportico (four-sided portico, like the one used for the enlosure of the Saepta Julia) was an architectural feature made popular by Caesar(4). After Caesar’s murder, and in the backlash of public support for the former ruler, men continued to work on projects that Caesar had set into motion(5). Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the least powerful member of the second triumvirate that included Octavian and Marc Antony, took on the continuation of the Saepta Julia building project. The building was finally completed and dedicated my Agrippa in 26 BCE. Agrippa also decorated the building with marble tablets and Greek paintings.

The building did not always retain its original function. It was used for gladiatorial fights by Augustus (6) and later as a market place (7).

The Saepta Julia can be seen on the Marble Plan, a map of the city of Rome as it existed in the early third century. Built under the emperor Septimius Severus, this marble map was fixed to the side of the Forum Pacis and is today, the only surviving plan of a Roman city (8). Part of the original wall can still be seen in Rome right next to the Pantheon.

Citations (1) The Oxford Classical Dictionary (2) A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, (3) The Urban Image of Augustan Rome, 170 (4) The Oxford Classical Dictionary (5) The Urban Image of Augustan Rome, 95 (6) The Urban Image of Augustan Rome, 115 (7) The Oxford Classical Dictionary (8) A New Edition of the Marble Plan of Ancient Rome, 143

References

• Samuel Ball Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

• Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary (1996) ISBN 019866172X  ; available online for a fee.

• Diane Favro, The Urban Image of Augustan Rome, New Yok: Cambridge University, 1996

• Herbert Bloch, A New Edition of the Marble Plan of Ancient Rome, The Journal of Roman Studies Vol. 51, Parts 1 and 2 (1961), pp. 143-152