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Near the Curia under the present roadway must lie the site of the Comitium, or meeting-place of the Roman burgesses. This was far the most important spot in the Forum in the days of the Republic. It was not a covered building, but a templum or a consecrated space open to the air.
Above the rostra was the Senate-house, said to have been first erected by Tullus Hostilius; and near the Comitium, or place of meeting for the patrician Curiæ. This area was at first uncovered, but a roof was erected at the close of the second Pu'nic war.
Comitium, assembly-place round the Rostra. "Oh, my dear Publius Dorso, I am so glad to meet you! How are all your affairs up in Fidenæ?" Drusus recoiled in some disgust, and began rubbing his outraged cheeks. "Dorso? Dorso? There is surely some mistake, my good man. I am known as Quintus Drusus of Præneste."
The Comitium reminds us very strikingly of the municipal origin of the Roman empire. In primitive times that mode of government was admirably adapted to the necessities of the city; but when Rome became mistress of the world it was found unfitted to discharge imperial functions.
Before the drainage of Pope Sixtus, the marshes covered at least thirteen thousand acres of ground, which in the earlier ages was the most fruitful portion of the Italian soil. Questions for Examination. When was Rome founded? What ceremonies were used in determining the pomcerium? How was the comitium consecrated? What was the first addition made to Rome? What was the next addition?
They also built the Curia Julia, called after him, next to the so-named Comitium, as had been voted. Besides, they forbade any likeness of him, because he was in very truth a god, to be carried at the funerals of his relatives, which ancient custom was still being observed.
It invaded the site of the republican Græcostasis, where foreign ambassadors waited for an audience of the senate, and occupied part of the area of the Comitium, whose original character was thereby destroyed; for it was erected at a time when men ceased to care for the venerable associations connected with the early history of their city.
Lucius Cantilius, secretary of the pontiff, whom they now call the lesser pontiffs, who had debauched Floronia, was beaten by rods in the comitium, by order of the chief pontiff, so that he expired under the stripes. This impiety being converted into a prodigy, as is usually the case when happening in the midst of so many calamities, the decemviri were desired to consult the sacred books.
Fabius, after requesting of the people nothing else than that, before the tribes were called in to give their votes, they would hear the letters of the praetor Appius Claudius, written from Etruria, withdrew from the Comitium, and with no less unanimity of the people than of the senate, the province of Etruria was decreed to him without having recourse to lots.
The establishment of the monarchical form of Government overthrew the Comitium, and with it the very life of the Roman city. In front of the church of S. Adriano said to be no other than the actual Curia of Diocletian, though greatly altered and partly rebuilt by Pope Honorius I. in the year 630 are some fragments of the Basilica Æmilia.
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