Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/797

 ROMA, erected upon it (Id. ix. 46), &c. But that it had an altar appears from the circumstance that sacri- fices of live fish taken in the Tiber were here made to Vulcan, in propitiation for human souls. (Festus in Piscutorii Ludi, p. 238, MUD.) Another fact which shows it to have been an open space, and at the same time tends to direct us to its site, is the lotus-tree which grew upon it, the roots of which are said to have penetrated as far as the forum of Caesar, which, as we shall show in its proper section, lay a little N. of the Forum Eomanum. " Verum altera lotos in Vulcanali, quod Romulus constituit ex victoria de. decumis, aequaeva urbi intelligitur, ut auctor est Masurius. Radices ejus in forum usque Caesaris per stationes municipiorum penetrant." (Plin. xvi. 86.) From which passage — whatever may be thought of the tale of the tree — we deduce these facts : that the Vulcanal existed in the time of I'liny; that it had occupied the same spot from time immemorial; that it could not have been at any very great distance from the forum of Caesar, other- wise the roots of the tree could not possibly have reached thither. Let those consider this last cir- cumstance who hold with Canina that the comitium was on the south side of the forum; or even with Bunsen and Becker that it was on the east. The Vulcanal must originally have occupied a considera- ble space, since it is represented as having sei'ved for a place of consultation between Romulus and Tatius, with their respective senates. (Dionys. ii. 50; Flut. Rom. 20.) Its extent, however, seems to have been reduced in process of time, since the Graecostasis was taken out of its area; a fact which appears from I.ivy mentioning the Aedes Concordiae, built by Fla- vius, as being "in area Vulcani " (ix. 46); whilst riiny says that it was on the Graecostasis (" aedicu- 1am aeream (Concordiae) fecit in Graecostasi, quae tunc supra comitium erat," xxxiii. 6): whence the situation of the Vulcanal may be further deduced ; since we know that the Graecostasis adjoined the curia, and the latter, as will be shown presently, lay on the N. side of the forum. Hence the Vulcanal also must have been close to the curia and forum; whence it ran back in a N. direction towards the spot subsequently occupied by the Forum Caesaris. This site is further confirmed by the Notitia, which places the Area Vulcard, as well as the Ternplum Faustinae and Basilica Paulli in the 4th Regio. I'reller indeed says (^Re^iunen, p. 128), that the area cannot possibly be mentioned in its right place liere, because it stood immediately over the forum in the neighbourhood of the temple of Faustina, where the old Curia Ilostilia stood; but his only reason for tliis as.sertion is Becker's dictum respecting the Vulcanal at p. 286, of which we have already seen the value. The comitium, then, would occupy that part of the forum which lay immediately under the Vulcanal, or the W. part of its N. side ; a situation which M confiniied by other evidence. Dionysius says that, as the juilgment-seat of Romulus, it was in the most consjjjcuous part of the furuni (tV tco (pav(poordrQ> TTJs ayopas, ii. 29), a description which corresponds a<hnirably with the site proposed. Livy (i. 36) s:iys that the statue of Altius Navius was on the steps of the comitium on the left of the curia, whence it may be inferred that the comitium extended on both sides of the curia. Pliny (xxxiv. 11) speak- ing of the same statue, says that it stood before the curia, and that its basis was burnt in the same lire which consumed that building when the body of Clodius was burnt there. ROJIA. 777 Hence, we are led to suppose that the comitium occupied a considerable part of the N. side of the forum; but its exact limits, from the want of satis- factory evidence, we are unable to define. It must have been a slightly elevated place, since we hear of its having steps ; and its form was probably cur- vilinear, as Pliny (xxxiv. 12) speaks of the statues of Pythagoras and Akibiades being at its Jiorns{" in cornibus Comitii"); unless this merely alludes to the angle it may have formed at the corner of the forum. It has been sometimes erroneously regarded as having a roof; a mistake which seems to have arisen from a misinterpretation of a passage in Livy, in which that author says that in b. c. 208 the <omitium was covered for the first time since Han- nibal had been in Italy ("Eo anno primum, ex quo Hannibal in Italiam venisset, comitium tectum esse, memoriae proditum est," xxvii. 36). Hence, it was thought, that from this time the comitium was covered with a permanent roof. But Piale (del T'oro Rom. p. 15, seq.) pointed out that in tiiis manner there would be no sense in the words " for the first time since Hannibal was in Italy," which indicate a repeated covering. The whole context shows that the historian is alluding to a revived ce- lebration of the Roman games, in the usual fashion; and that the covering is nothing more than the vela or canvas, which on such occasions was spread over the comitium, to shade the spectators who occupied it from the sun. That the comitium was an open place is evident from many circumstances. Thus, the pro- digious rain, which so frequently falls in the nar- rative of Livy, is described as wetting it (Liv. xxxiv. 45; Jul. Obseq. c. 103), and troops are re- presented as marching over it. It was here, also, that the famous Ruminalis Arbor grew (Tac. Ann. xiii. 58), which seems to have been transplanted thither from the Palatine by some juggle of Attius Navius, the celebrated augur (Plin. xv. 20 ; ap. Bunsen, Les Forum de Rom. p. 43, seq.), though we can by no means accede to Bunsen's emendation of that passage. The principal destination of the comitium was for holding the comitia curiata, and for hearing lawsuits (" Comitium ab eo quod coibant eo, co- mitiis curiatis, et litium causa," Ynr. L.L.y. § 155, iIull.), and it must, iheret'ore, have been capable of containing a considerable number of persons. 'J'he comitia centuriata, on the other hand, were held in the Campus Martins ; and the tributa on the forum proper. The. curiata were, however, sometimes held on the Capitol before the Curia Calabra. The comi- tium was also originally the proper place for contioncs, or addresses delivered to the assembled people. All these customs caused it to be regarded as more honourable and important than the forum, which at first was nothing more than a mere market-place. Hence, we frequently find it spoken of as a more distinguished place than the forum ; and seats uiwn it for viewing the games were assigned to per- sons of rank. Its distinction from the forum, iis a place of honour for the magistrates, is clearly marked in the following pa.ssage of Livy, describing the alarm and confusion at Rome after the defeat at Trasimenc : '• Romae ad primnni nuntium cladis ejus cum ingenti terroro ac tunuiltu conciu'sus in forum populi est factus. Matronac vagao per vias, quae repens cladcs adlata, quaeve fortuna exercitus es.^ct, obvios percontantur. Kt quum freqncntis contionis modo titrha iit coinilium et curiam ver.in vm(jistratus vocaret" &.C. (xsii. 7). When not oc-