Читать книгу Rambles in Rome - S. Russell Forbes - Страница 92

Neither the position nor the construction of this Rostra answers to that of the original Suggestum, which took the name of Rostra from having fixed on it the six bronze beaks of the Antiates' ships. The original Rostra, shown on a coin of Palikanus, the orator mentioned by Cicero ("Brutus," lxii.)—see page 42—was a wooden pulpit. Its exact site we have already identified. The last historical notice that we have of it is in Spartianus's "Life of Didius Julianus" (iv.), A.D. 193. After saying that the emperor addressed the Senate, he adds, "but the people expressly in the Rostra before the Curia."

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Under the Empire the Rostra had lost its use, and only served occasionally for the emperor to address the people from, or for reading out edicts and proclamations. The western end of the Forum saw many changes after the fire under Commodus, and was rearranged under Septimius Severus, who restored the old edifices, retaining the names of the founders, and erected others (Spartianus, "Severus," xxiii.). In 203 an arch was erected to Severus and his two sons, and a new Rostra was made on the south side of this arch. By cutting away a piece of the slope of the Capitoline Hill, he formed an escarpment 11 feet high, which was faced with a curved brick wall, and cased with Porta Santa marble, in panels 3 feet 1 inch wide. Between each pair of panels there is a space 6½ inches wide, from which a piece of marble jutted out 3½ inches. Only one of these exists. On it there was fixed a bronze beak, probably made in imitation of the old ones, for in that day they had no naval foes from whom to capture ships. If there was one row only, there were eighteen in all; if two rows, thirty-six. This in itself is sufficient to show the ridiculousness of calling this the original Rostra, which had six beaks only. The peculiar marble casing also shows late work. At the north end of this platform was erected the Umbilicus (E), and on the south end was placed the Milliarium Aureum (F). From the level space on the top of this escarpment the orator would speak; whilst at a short distance in his rear was the street Clivus Argentarius, leading from the Via Sacra to the Porta Rutuminia. This Rostra was popularly known as the People's Rostra, because from it they were addressed—"Deinde ad Rostra Populum convocarunt" (Capitolinus, "Maximus et Balbinus," iii.). The narrowness of the level space on the top of this Rostra caused great inconvenience; and as room could not be gained in the rear, it had to be taken in front, encroaching on the Comitium. Forty-three and a half feet in front of the curved wall of Porta Santa a straight wall was built of travertine and tufa, 78 feet long, with side walls from it back to the extreme ends of the Rostra, and this was cased with Carrara white marble, the space between the two walls being filled with earth, thus making a large platform with a square instead of a curved front. The blocks of tufa and marble were tied together by iron clamps, of which fragments remain, of a shape not used in the earlier days, but used now. That the curved wall and the straight wall are not contemporary is shown by the construction, as well as by the fact that the curved wall is faced with coloured marble, which would not have been the case if it had not at one time been open to the Forum. The curved wall is on a line with the Arch of Severus; but the tufa wall comes out 25½ feet beyond the arch, and is not parallel with the curved wall behind it. The tufa and travertine wall is erected on the travertine pavement of the Comitium.

We believe these changes on this Rostra were made in the time of Aurelian (270), after the death of Claudius II., whose statue was erected on this Rostra. "Illi totius orbis judicio in rostris posita est columna palmata statua superfixa" (Pollio, "Claudius," iii.). Upon this Rostra also Aurelian erected a statue of the Genius of the Roman People. Aurelianus—"Genium Populi Romani in rostra posuit" ("E Chronicis antiquis excerpta Aurelianus"). The fourth century guides, "Curiosum Urbis" and "De Regionibus" (in Regio viii.), mention the Genium Populi Romani, the latter adding "aureum." They both mention three Rostra in the Forum. The statue of Claudius was not represented as wearing the Roman toga, but the Greek pallium, from which this Rostra became known as the Rostra ad Palmam; and this part of the Forum in later times was called ad Palmam.

Theodoric—"Deinde veniens ingressus urbem venit ad Senatum, et ad Palmam populo adlocutus" ("Excerpta Valesiana," lxvi.).

"Ligaverunt ei manus a tergo et decollaverunt extra Capitolium et extrahentes jactaverunt eum juxta arcum triumphi ad Palmam" ("Acta SS., Mai." vii.).

Ammianus Marcellinus (xvi. x. 13) describes Constantius's visit in 356 to this Rostra: "When he arrived at the Rostra, he gazed with amazed awe on the Forum, the most renowned monument of ancient power; and being bewildered with the number of wonders on every side to which he turned his eyes, having addressed the nobles in the Senate House and harangued the populace from the Rostra, he retired." This expresses the feelings of many visitors in our day. The site commands a good view of the Forum.