Comitium
The Comitium was in the Roman Republic to the late Republican period, the usual place for the legislative popular assemblies ( comitia ). It was on the northwestern edge of the Roman Forum , next to the Hostilia Curia and its successors, the Cornelia Curia and the Iulia Curia , where the Senate usually met.
The shape of the Comitium has been changed several times. Originally probably just an open space, it was later given a circular shape, similar to that of an amphitheater . This appearance is well documented in other Italian cities, such as the colonial city of Cosa (Ansedonia) .
The speaker's platform ( rostra ) was on the edge of the Comitium . Since the Comitium no longer had a place for all Roman citizens, the speakers in the late Rostra Republic no longer spoke about the Comitium, but about the larger forum, and the Comitium gradually lost its importance. Today, after all the changes, almost nothing is left of the Comitium.
literature
- Filippo Coarelli : Il Foro Romano I. Periodo Arcaico. Edizione Quasar, Rome 1983, pp. 119-174.
- Filippo Coarelli : Comitium. In: Eva Margareta Steinby (Ed.): Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae . Volume 1. Edizione Quasar, Rome 1993, pp. 309-314.
- Einar Gjerstad : Il comizio romano dell'età repubblicana. In: Opuscula archaeologica. Volume 2, 1941, pp. 97-158.
- Clemens Krause: On the structural design of the republican comitium. In: Roman communications . Volume 83, 1976, pp. 31-69.
- Eva Maria Lackner: Republican Fora. Biering & Brinkmann, Munich 2008, pp. 260-265.
- Eugen Petersen : Comitium. Rostra. Tomb of Romulus. Rome 1904.
Web links
- The Comitium at Roma Antiqua - Rome on the Net
- Reconstruction proposal and information on the Comitium on the website of the 'digital forum romanum' of the Humboldt University of Berlin
Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 34 " N , 12 ° 29 ′ 6.2" E