Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/805

 ROMA. or elevated area, which served as a waiting-place for foreign ambassadors before they were admitted to an audience of the senate, waa constructed on the Vulcanal close to the curia, as before described. The adornment of the suggestum or oratorical plat- form on the comitium with the beaks of the ships taken from the Antiates, forms, from the connection of this celebrated object with the history of republican Rome, and the change of name which it underwent on the occasion, a sort of epoch in the history of the forum. This occurred b. c. 337. (i'lin. xxsiv. 11.) The Rostra at this time stood, as we have said, on the comitium before the curia — a pjsition which they continued to occupy even after the time that new ones were erected by Julius Cae- sar. (Dion Cass, xliii. 49 ; Ascon. ad Cic. Milon. 5.) The rostra were a templum, or place conse- crated by auguries (" Rostrisque earum (naviuni) suggestum in foro extructum, adornari placuit : Rostraque id templum appellatum," Liv. viii. 14 ; comp. Cic. in Vatin. 10.) They are distinguished by Dion Cassius (Ivi. 34) from those erected by Caesar, by the epithet of ^v/xa Srifj.riyupLKdi', and by Suetonius by that of Vetera. (Suet. Ang. 100.) It may be inferred from a passage in a letter of Fronto's to the emperor Antoninus, tiiat the rostra were not raited to any very great height above the level of the comitium and forum (" Nee tantulo superiore, quanto rostra foro et comitio escelsiora ; sed altiores antemnae sunt prora vel potius carina,'' lib. i. ep. 2). When speaking from the rostra it. was usual in the more ancient times for the orator to turn towards the comitium and curia, — a custom first neglected by C. Licinius Crassus in the consul- ship of Q. Maximus Scipio and L. Mancinus, who turned towards the forum and addressed himself to the people (C!b. Atn. 25); though, according to Plutarch (^Gracch. 5), this innovation was intro- duced by C. Gracchus. ROSTKA . (From a Coin.) The erecting of columns in honour of military achievements came very early into use at Rome, and seems to have preceded the triumphal arch. The first monument of this sort appears to have been the column on the forum called the Columna Maenia, commemorative of the victory gained by C. Maenius over the Latins, b. c. 338. (Liv. viii. 13.) Livy, indeed, in the passage cited says that the monument was an equestrian statue ; whil.st Pliny on the other hand (xxxiv. 11) states that it was a column, which is also mentioned by Cicero. {Sest. 58.) Niebuhr would reconcile both .accounts, by assuming that the statue was on a co- lumn. {Hist. vol. iii. p. 145.) pjiny in another place (vii. 60) says that the column afforded the means of determining the last hour of the day ("A columna Maenia ad carcerem inclinato siderc supremam pronuntiabat (accensus)") ; but it is very dithcult to see how a column standing on the forum could vol.. II. ROMA. 785 have thrown a shadow towards the career in the evening. Another celebrated monument of the same kind was the Duilian column, also called Columna Ro- STRATA, from its having the beaksof ships sculptured upon it. It was erected in honour of C. Duilius who gained a great naval victory over the Cartha- ginians, B. c. 260. According to Servius (GVor^r. iii. V. 29) there were two of these cohunns, one on or near the rostra, the other in front of the circus. Pliny, indeed (xxxiv. 11), and Quintilian {Inst. i. 7) speak of it as " in foro ; " but forum is a generic name, including the comitium as a part, and tlierefore, as used by these authors, does not in- validate the more precise designation of Servius. The basis of this column was found at no great distance from the arch . of Severus (Ciacconio, Columnae Rostratae Inscrij}. ExpUcatio, p. 3, ap. Canina, Foro Rom. p. 301, note), a fact which confirms the position which we have assigned to the comitium and curia. The inscription in a frag- mentary state is still preserved in the Palazzo de' ConservaiorL COLUMNA DUIUA On the forum in front of the rostra stood the statue of Marsyas with uplil'lcd hand, the emblem of civic liberty. (Serv. ad Aen. iv. 58 ; cf. Macrob. Sat. iii. 12.) Here w.is the great resort of the cnusidici, and also of the Roman courtesans. Hence Martial (ii. 64. 8) : — " Ipse potest fieri JIarsya causidicus." Horace (Sat. i. 6. 120) h.as converted the pointed finger of tiie Satyr into a sign of scorn and derision against an obnoxious individual : — " obeundus Marsya, qui se Vultuni fciTC negat Noviorum posse minoris." It was here that Julia, the daughter of Augustn.s, held her infamous orgie.s, in company with tho 3ii