Rostra

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On the face of the rostra are the holes that were used to attach the ship's beaks.

Rostra (plural neuter from Latin rostrum , "ship's beak") was the name of several platforms for speakers in the Roman Forum in ancient Rome . In the Rostra form , the word is often misunderstood as a singular feminine because of the analogy with tribune or platform .

Surname

The name, initially only used for the speaker's platform from the Republican era at the north-western end of the forum, was derived from the ship's beaks called rostra , which the consul Gaius Maenius had in 338 BC. Chr. On the speaker's platform had attached. They came as trophies from the captured ships that the Romans captured in the Latin War against the Volscians in the port of Antium , today's Anzio , around 60 kilometers south of Rome.

The Republican Rostra

Rostra, Comitium and Senate Building, approx. 250–50 BC Chr.

The location of the speaker's platform was closely connected to the immediately adjacent grave of Romulus or his foster father Faustulus . The Volcanal was one of the oldest sanctuaries in Rome. The speaker's platform was closely related to the founding legend and early days of the city. Even regarded as a correspondingly sacred place, it had been designated by the augurs as a templum , that is, a district separated from the realm of the profane. Presumably used as a meeting place since the royal era , with the establishment of the republic the area became a central place for political opinion-forming, elections and senate meetings. In Republican times, the Rostra were on the south side of the Comitium , separating the Comitium area from the Roman Forum area.

As a speaker's platform, the rostra were originally strictly assigned to the Comitium as a meeting place and oriented accordingly. From its location in the south of the Comitium, it also offered speakers the opportunity to address a larger crowd in the Roman Forum.

A first step building, which could be entered from the north and therefore from the Comitium, is archaeologically verifiable as early as the Early Republic. Here was around the middle of the 5th century BC. The Twelve Tables Act , the first written set of laws of the Roman Republic, was attached and it was this first speaker's platform at the 338 BC. The eponymous ship's beaks were attached to the sea, which were multiplied after further victories at sea in the following centuries.

Around the middle of the 3rd century BC During the First Punic War , the Comitium and Rostra underwent extensive reorganization. The rostra, which were raised several times in the course of further use, were given a rounded shape and are the only part of these changes that can be easily understood archaeological Their archaeological findings form the basis for the reconstruction of the Comitium as a circular complex, as can also be proven for other Italian cities, for example in Cosa and Paestum . The new building was also decorated with the old ship's beaks from Antium. There were also statues of outstanding men, the number of which kept getting out of hand, so that they had to be cleared from time to time to make way for new statues.

Since the Comitium was no longer sufficient for the growing population of Rome with the right to vote, assemblies - especially if they aroused great interest - were moved to the Forum Square. For this reason, speakers turned from the 2nd century BC onwards. From the Rostra to the people gathered at the forum. Allegedly the tribune was Gaius Licinius Crassus in 145 BC. The first to hold the legislative assembly at the forum. The close, also structural, connection between the Comitium and Rostra slowly dissolved.

After Sulla 82 BC. BC by whom Interrex Lucius Valerius Flaccus was appointed dictator to “make laws and order the state” (legibus scribundis et rei publicae constituendae) , one of his most important constitutional changes after the end of the proscriptions was the renewal of the senate and its members he doubled to 600. For this, the senate building, the Curia , had to be enlarged accordingly. Sulla had the old Hostilia Curia , supposedly going back to Tullus Hostilius , replaced by a new building that bore his name: Cornelia Curia . This assembly building, which was more than twice as large, encroached heavily on the Comitium area, the declining use of which was further impaired. There is no evidence of a redesign of the Rostra for the Sullan period, but a turn to the forum was forced to use it solely for reasons of space.

This republican construction phase of the speaker's platform is often referred to in research as rostra vetera ("old Rostra"). However, this expression is used only once in the written tradition by Suetonius , who designates the successor structure, the rostra Caesaris or Augusti , in order to set it apart from the younger rostra aedis Divi Iuli .

Rostra Caesaris

Coin of Lucius Lollius Palicanus, 45 BC. BC, representation of the Rostra (Caesaris?)

As a result of the riots between the followers of Titus Annius Milo and Publius Clodius Pulcher in January 52 BC. When Clodius was slain, his followers set the Curia Cornelia on fire to cremate the body of Clodius. Sulla's son, Faustus Sulla , had it restored, but Caesar decided in 44 BC. To demolish the building and build a new Curia, which was to bear his name as Iulia Curia .

The measure followed in the 54 BC. Caesar's building program, which began with the Forum Iulium, on the one hand included a new facility as an extension of the Forum Romanum, and on the other hand included a redesign of the Forum Romanum itself. As part of this redesign, in 44 BC. The republican Rostra, of which it is unknown whether they were affected by the fire at Cornelia Curia, moved to the west side of the forum. The Comitium finally lost its function as a meeting place, which now served only the Roman Forum.

How far the project under Caesar, who began on the Ides of March 44 BC ? Chr. Was killed, could still be implemented, is not certain. They were carried out and consecrated in the name of Marcus Antonius , to whom Caesar expressly granted the honor of adding the donor's inscription. In 43 BC The new rostra were completed, and it was on this platform that Mark Antony had the head and hands of the murdered Cicero displayed. The funeral ceremony for Caesar, the laying out of his corpse on the Rostra, of which he “spoke so often to the people”, will probably have used the republican Rostra as a backdrop.

According to the archaeological findings, the new Rostra took up the rounded shape of their Republican predecessor. They could be accessed from the west via probably seven steps and provided a curved platform for the speakers towards the forum. As in Republican times, the Antium ship's beaks were attached to the forum side. Statues of Sulla and Pompey adorned the platform at the instigation of Caesar; there were also statues of Caesar himself, which were put up by his followers. In 43 BC In addition, an equestrian statue for Augustus , adopted son and successor of Caesar, was erected on the Rostra. The preserved opus caementicium of the core is 3.50 meters high and over 13 meters long.

Rostra Augusti

Rectangular structure of the Rostra Augusti

The form of the rostra, which was traced back to Caesarian planning, did not last long; whether it ever represented a finished, self-contained state is not really certain. Soon there was a significant change in the structure under Augustus. It is generally associated with the building work that began in 29 BC. The Curia Iulia and the Temple of Divus Iulius were consecrated and thus opened to the public . The reason for the redesign of the Rostra may have been the rift with Marcus Antonius, whose name was emblazoned on the Rostra Caesars. The space in the stands was also tight and quickly filled with the statues of Sulla, Pompey, Caesar and Augustus.

The rostra received a 23.8 meter wide, rectangular porch, so that Caesar's rounded building only served as a staircase. The front was again adorned with the ship's beaks from Antium. The fastening holes are still partially preserved, the facades, which are now walled up with small rubble stones, are modern. Between the Rostra Caesars and the new front, pillars, originally made of travertine and later replaced by brickwork, supported the floor of the platform, which was probably made of wood. The wall paneling of undetermined date on the side of the Arch of Septimius Severus, which was built later, consisted of slabs of Portasanta marble - a marble from the island of Chios - and the (Marmo) Africano from Teos .

But the rostra Augusti, at least in Augustan times , were less important than the more recent rostra aedis Divi Iuli on the east side of the forum . The rostra were used until late antiquity. Over the years, the number of statues approved for installation on the platform increased. As the imperial era progressed , people who did not belong to the imperial family were also honored in this way. Again and again this made stabilization measures necessary in the area of ​​the substructure without changing the appearance of the rostra.

This changed at the latest in the time of the Tetrarchy . A massive and deep foundation was created that supported a monument consisting of five columns. On each column stood the statue of one of the four tetrarchs with a statue of Iuppiter in the center. At the same time a counterpart was created on the east side of the forum with the rostra Diocletiani , which in terms of formal aspects reflected the tetrarchical redesign of the rostra Augusti .

The Rostra Augusti with the tetrarchical five-column monument on the frieze of the Arch of Constantine

Rostra Vandalica

Either already in the tetrarchical building context or in the 5th century, the platform received an extension on its north side, which extended the usable area of ​​the rostra accordingly. This measure is generally associated with a very fragmentary inscription from the middle of the 5th century. It was found in four parts between 1833 and 1882 west of the Phocas column and assigned to the Rostra due to the reconstructed length of over 10 meters. Which measures can be connected with the affixing of the inscription is as uncertain as the reason for its affixing. Whether it was connected with the conquest of Rome by the vandals in 455 - therefore often referred to as rostra vandalica - or with the attachment of further ship's beaks after sea victories against the vandals in 456 under the western Roman emperor Avitus , cannot be determined with certainty . A restoration of the rostra after earthquake damage is also conceivable.

literature

  • Paolo Carafa: Il comizio dalle origini all'età di Augusto (= Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma. Supplement 5). “L'Erma” di Bretschneider, Rome 1998, pp. 148–155.
  • Filippo Coarelli : Il Comizio dalle origini alla fine della Repubblica. Cronologia e topografia. In: La Parola del Passato. Volume 32, 1977, pp. 166-238; Paolo Carafa: Il comizio dalle origini all'età di Augusto (= Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma. Supplement 5). “L'Erma” di Bretschneider, Rome 1998, pp. 148–155.
  • Walter Hatto Gross : speaker's platform. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 4, Stuttgart 1972, column 1363 f.
  • Dirk Henning: CIL VI 32005 and the "rostra Vandalica". In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy . Volume 100, 1996, pp. 259-264 ( PDF ).
  • August Mau : Rostra Caesaris. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute. Roman department . Volume 20, 1905, pp. 230-266.
  • Eugen Petersen : Comitium. Rostra. Tomb of Romulus. Rome 1904 ( digitized version ).
  • Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1992, pp. 334-336 sv Rostra, Rostra Augusti, Rostra Caesaris.
  • Patrizia Verduchi: Le tribune rostrate. In: Anna Maria Bietti Sestrieri (Ed.): Roma. Archeologica nel centro (= Lavori e studi di archeologia. Volume 6). De Luca Rom 1985, pp. 29-33.
  • Patrizia Verduchi: Rostra Augusti. In: Eva Margareta Steinby (Ed.): Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae . Volume 4. Quasar, Rome 1999, pp. 214-217.

Web links

Remarks

  1. S. z. B. Herbert Alexander Stützer: Art and Life in Ancient Rome , Dumont Buchverlag, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-7701-3369-2 , pp. 28 ff. And many others
  2. Varro , de lingua Latina 5,155 : Ante hanc Rostra; cuius id vocabulum, ex hostibus capta fixa sunt rostra.
  3. Pliny , Naturalis historia 34:11 (20) ; Titus Livy 8:14, 12.
  4. Scholion to Horace , epodes 16,13.14.
  5. Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1,87,2 .
  6. Marcus Tullius Cicero , In Vatinium 10 (24) ; Livy 2.56 .
  7. Varro, de lingua Latina 5,155; Diodorus 12.26 .
  8. ^ Asconius Pedianus , In Milone 12.
  9. Filippo Coarelli : Il Comizio dalle origini alla fine della Repubblica. Cronologia e topografia. In: La Parola del Passato. Volume 32, 1977, pp. 166-238; Paolo Carafa: Il comizio dalle origini all'età di Augusto (= Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma. Supplement 5). “L'Erma” di Bretschneider, Rome 1998, pp. 148–155.
  10. ^ Cicero, Philippine Speeches 9:16 ; Livy 4:17 ; Pliny, Naturalis historia 34.11 (23-25) ; Velleius Paterculus 2.61.
  11. Cicero, Laelius de amicitia 96 ; Varro, De re rustica 1,2,9.
  12. Appian , Civil Wars 1,99,462.
  13. Pliny, Naturalis historia 34:12 (26) ; Cassius Dio 40.49 .
  14. ^ Suetonius, Augustus 100 .
  15. Cicero, Pro Milone 33 (90) ; Asconius, In Milone 33 ; Cassius Dio 40.49.
  16. Cassius Dio 44.5 .
  17. Cassius Dio 43.49.
  18. Cassius Dio 43.49.
  19. ^ Plutarch , Cicero 49 .
  20. ^ Suetonius, Caesar 84 ; Appian , bellum civile 2,143 .
  21. Cassius Dio 44.49.
  22. ^ Eugen Petersen: Comitium. Rostra. Tomb of Romulus. Rome 1904, p. 35.
  23. Cassius Dio 44.5.
  24. Velleius Paterculus 2,61,3
  25. ^ Klaus S. Freyberger : The Roman Forum. Second, revised and expanded edition. Philipp von Zabern, Darmstadt / Mainz 2012, ISBN 978-3-8053-4471-5 , p. 61.
  26. CIL 06, 32005 .
  27. Dirk Henning: CIL VI 32005 and the "rostra Vandalica". In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy . Volume 100, 1996, pp. 259-264.

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 33.5 ″  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 4.9 ″  E