Читать книгу Rambles in Rome - S. Russell Forbes - Страница 81

We know from Dion Cassius that Cæsar encouraged the popular business to be carried on at the lower end of the Forum, and that he turned the steps of the Temple of Castor into a temporary rostra. On this becoming popular he built a new rostra, which was called the plebeian rostra or Rostra Julia. We learn from Suetonius that it was before the Temple of Cæsar. Cicero, speaking from it against Mark Antony, bids his audience look to the (their) left at the gilt equestrian statue of Antony which stood before the Temple of Castor.

HADRIAN ADDRESSING THE PEOPLE FROM THE ROSTRA JULIA.

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This is one of the most interesting spots in the Forum. Cæsar built the second rostra with its rear towards the Forum, represented by the darker lines in the above plan. In front, towards the curved edge, Antony spoke, Cæsar's body being on the level below. The body was burnt and buried "in the Forum in that place visible from the old monumental Regia of the Romans. On the spot was placed an altar where now is the Temple of Cæsar" (Appian, ii. 42). "The same men were erecting a tomb in the Forum who had performed that irregular funeral" (Cicero, "First Phil." ii.).

It was decorated with the rams of the captured ships of Antony and Cleopatra. It was the custom to speak from the circular edge; but when the Temple of Cæsar was built, it was erected close up to his rostra, on the site where the people had previously stood, and so they had to turn about and address the people from the flat edge. "As he was seated on the rostra at the festival of Pan, Mark Antony placed upon his brow a royal diadem" (Velleius Paterculus, ii. 56).