Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/798

 778 ROMA. cupied by the magistrates it appears to have been open to the people. Thus, the senate being as- sembled in the curia to hear the ambassadors of those made prisoners at the battle of Cannae, the people are represented as filling the comitium : " Ubi is finem fecit, extemplo ab ea turba, quae in comitio erat, clamor flebilis est sublatus, manusque ad curiam tendentes, &c." (Id. xxii. 60.) Being the place for the contiones it of course had a sug- gestuni, or rostra, from which speeches were de- livered ; but we shall have occasion to describe this and other objects on and around the comitium and forum when we arrive at them in their chronological order. It was not till after the preceding account of the comitium hail been committed to paper that the writer of it met with the essay on the comitium by Mommsen in the Annali dell' /nstituto (vo.-&yi.), to which reference has before been made. The writer was glad to perceive that his general view of the situation of the comitium had been anticipated, although he is unable to concur with Mommsen respecting some of the details; such as the situation of the Curia Hostilia, of the temple of Janus, of the Forum Caesaris, and some other objects. In re- futing Becker's views, Jlommsen has used much the same arguments, though not in such detail, as those just adduced ; but he lias likewise thought it worth while to refute an argument from a passage in Herodian incidentally adduced by Becker in a note (p. 332). As some persons, however, may be dis- posed to attribute more weight to that argument than we do ourselves, we shall here quote Momm- sen's refutation : " Minus etiam probat alterum, quod h. Beckero, p. 332, n. 612, atfertur, arguuientum desumtum ex narratione Herodiani, i. 9, Severum in sonuiio vidisse Pertinacem equo vectum 8ia fx4aT]s ^r|s iy 'P»|U]7 Upas oSov ■ qui cum venisset icara 77)1/ apxv^ TTJs ayojjas, ivBa. eiri brjixoKpai ias npu- Tepov STjfjLOS cTvviiiu fK/cArjaiafej', equum eo escusso subiisse Severo eumque vexisse €7r2 ttjs ayopas fieiTTis. Non intelligo cur verba evda — sk/cAtj- (ria^tv referantur ad rriv ctpxV neque ad rijs ayopas, quod multo est simplicius. Nam ut optime quasi in foro insi&tere vidctur qui rerum Romanarum potiturus est, ita de comitio eo tempore inepte haec dicerentur ; accedit quod, si ad tiV «PxV '''^^ ayopas omen pertineret, Severus ibi constiturus fuisset, neque in foro medio. — Nullis igitur idoneis argumentis topographi Germani comitium eam partem fori esse statuerunt quae Veliis subjacet " (p. 289). So much for the negative side of the question : on the positive side Mommsen adduces (p. 299) an argument which had not occurred to the writer of the present article in proof of the position above indicated for the comitium. It is drawn from the Sacrum Cluacinae. That shrine, Jlommsen argues, stood by the Tabernae Novae, that is, near the arch of Severus, as Becker has correctly shown (^Handb. p. 321) fiom Livy iii. 48; but he has done wrong in rejecting the result that may be drawn from the comparison of the two legends ; first, that the comitium was so called because Romulus and Tatius met upon it after the battle (p. 273); second, that the Romans and Sabines cleansed them- selves, after laying aside their arms, at the spot where the statue of Venus Cluacina afterwards stood (Plin. sv. 18. s. 36); whence it follows that the statue was on the comitium. A fresh confirmation, Mommsen continues, may be added to this discoveiy ROMA, of the truth. For that the Tabernae were on the comitium, and not on the forum, as Becker sup- poses, is pretty clearly shown by Dionysius (ttji/ T6 ayopau kv fi ZiKa^ovuL Kal t/cKA7)(ndfoi»m, Kal ras &Kas iirmKovcn iroXniKas Trpd^ets, fKf7yos eKoffix-qaeu, ipyaim^pioiS re Kal toIs SAAojs Koafxois Trepta§cai>, iii. 67). We are not, however, disposed to lay any great stress on this argument. We think, as we have already said, that Varro's etymology of the comitium, from the political and legal business transacted there rendering it a place of great resort, is a much more probable one ; since, as the forum itself did not exist at the time when Romulus and Tatius met after the battle, it is at least very unlikely that any spot should afterwards have been marked out upon it commemorative of that event. It is, nevertheless, highly probable that the statue of Cluacina stood on the comitium, but without any reference to these traditions. We do not, however, think that the tabernae occupied the comitium. By ayopd Diony- sius means the whole forum, as may be inferred from ■nepiXaSiav. The Forum under the Kings. — In the time of Romulus, then, we must picture the forum to ourselves as a bare, open space, having upon it only the altar of Saturn at about the middle of its western side, and the Vuleanal on its NW. side. Under Numa Pompilius it received a few improve- ments. Besides the little temple of Janus, which TE3IPLE OF jAxus. Qprom a Coin ) did not stand far from the forum, but of which we have already had occasion to speak, when treating of the Porta Janualis in the first part of this article, Numa built near it his Regia, or palace, as well as the celebrated temple of Vesta. Both these objects stood very near together at the SE. extremity of the forum. The Aekes Vestae was a round building (Festus, p. 262; Vlut. Num. 11), but no temple in the Roman sense of the word ; since it had been purposely left uninaugurated, because, being the resort of the vestal virgins, it was not deemed right that the senate should be at liberty to meet in it (Serv. A en. vii. 153). Its site may be inferred from TEMPLE OF 'ESTA. (From a Coin.)