Читать книгу Rambles in Rome - S. Russell Forbes - Страница 33

Cicero Ad Atticum (iv. 15) informs us that Julius Cæsar commenced a septa in the Campus Martius for the Comitia Centuriata and Tributa. It consisted of a beautiful building of marble, surrounded with a portico a mile square. It adjoined the Villa Publica. It was completed by Lepidus the triumvir, and dedicated by Agrippa (Dion Cassius, liii. 23). Frontinus (Aq. xxii.) says the arches of the Aqua Virgo ended in the Campus Martius, in front of the Septa.

The Comitia Centuriata, when the people assembled in their military order, to elect their highest magistrates, to pass their laws, and to vote upon peace or war, always met outside the walls in the Campus Martius.

Comitia Tributa, for less important magistrates, tribunes, and ædiles, met sometimes in the Campus Martius.

The Septa consisted of pens (hence the name), into which the tribes passed to record their votes, which were given by ballot. Every voter received a tabella (tablet), on which he wrote the name of the candidate for whom he voted. He then dropped it into an urn.

Near by, Agrippa built the Diribitorium, a large building used for distributing and counting the ballot tickets. It was dedicated by Augustus (Dion Cassius, lv. 8; Pliny, xvi. 40). During a fire Claudius passed two nights here (Suetonius, "Claudius," xviii.).

These ruins extend under the Doria Palace, and have nothing to do with any house. There were no houses on the Campus Martius in Paul's time. (See page 197.)

Just beyond, on the same side of the way, is