Diemazz

Coordinates: 41°53′34.55″N 12°29′7.45″E / 41.8929306, 12.4854028

Curia Julia
Location	Regione VIII Forum Romanum [1]
Built in	44 BC
Built by/for	Julius Caesar
Type of structure	Roman government structure
Curia Julia

Curia Julia, (Latin: Curia Iulia) the third named curia, or senate house, in Ancient Rome was built in 44 BC when Julius Caesar replaced Faustus Cornelius Sulla’s reconstructed Curia Cornelia, which, itself had replaced the Curia Hostilia. Caesar did this in order to redesign the Forum Romanum, reduce the prominence of the senate and clear the original comitium space. The work, however, was interrupted by his assassination at the Theatre of Pompey where the senate had been meeting temporarily while the work was completed. The project was eventually finished by Caesar’s successor Augustus in 29 BC.^[1]

The Curia Julia is one of only a handful of Roman structures to survive to the modern day intact. The reason for its complete preservation is its conversion into the Church of S. Adriano in the seventh century AD.

History

There were many curia during the history of the Roman civilization. Many of them existed at the same time. Curia simply means "Meeting House". While the senate meet regularly at the curia within the comitium space, there were many other structures designed for them to meet when the need occured, such as meeting with someone who was not allowed to enter the sanctified curias of the senate.

While the Curia Julia is the third named curia within the comitium it is by no means only the third curia to be built. Each structure was rebuilt a number of times. In fact the Curia Julia is the thrid incarnation of this curia. From 81 AD to 96 the Curia Julia was restored under Domitian. In 283, this Curia was destroyed by the fire of emperor Carinus.^[2] From AD 284 to 305, the Curia was then rebuilt by Diocletian. It is the remnants of Diocletian’s building that stands today. In 412, the Curia was restored again, this time by Urban Prefect Flavius Annius Eucharius Epiphanius.

On July 10, 1923 the Italian government acquired the Curia Julia and the adjacent convent of the Church of S. Adriano from the Collegio di Spagna for approximately 16.000 Lira.^[3]

Description

The exterior of the Curia Julia features brick-faced concrete with a huge buttress at each angle. The lower part of the front wall was decorated with slabs of marble. The upper part was covered with stucco imitation of white marble blocks. A single flight of steps leads up the bronze doors. The current bronze doors are modern replicas; the original bronze doors were transferred to the Basilica of St. John Lateran by Pope Alexander VII in 1660.^[4]

Interestingly enough, a coin was found within the doors during their transfer.^{[citation needed]} This coin gave archaeologists valuable insight into the original appearance of the Curia Julia, especially the prominence of its chalcidicum or portico.

The interior of the Curia Julia is fairly austere. The hall is 25.20 meters long by 17.61 meters wide. There are three broad steps that could have fitted five rows of chairs, or a total of about three hundred senators.^[5] The walls are stripped, but originally were veneered in marble two-thirds of the way up. The two main features of the interior of the Curia Julia are its “Altar of Victory” and its striking floor.

At the far end of the Curia’s hall could be found the “Altar of Victory”.^[6] It consisted of a statue of Victoria, the personification of victory, standing on a globe, extending a wreath. This altar was placed in the Curia by Augustus to celebrate Rome’s military prowess, and more specifically his own victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The altar was removed in the 4th century as part of a general backlash against the pagan traditions of ancient Rome.^[7]

The other main feature of the Curia’s interior, the floor, is in contrast to the colorless interior of the Curia Julia. Featured on the floor is the Roman art technique of opus sectile, in which materials are cut and inlaid into walls and floors in order to make pictures of patterns. It is described by Claridge as “stylized rosettes in squares alternate with opposed pairs of entwined cornucopias in rectangles, all worked in green and red porphyry on backgrounds of Numidian yellow Phrygian purple”.^[8]

Significance

Inside the Curia (or Curia Julia), the restored Senate House (2006).

In his Res Gestae, Augustus writes of the project: “I built the Senate House... with the power of the state entirely in my hands by universal consent, I extinguished the flames of civil wars, and then relinquished my control, transferring the Republic back to the authority of the Senate and the Roman people. For this service I was named Augustus by a decree of the Senate”.^[9] In fact, this relinquishment of power was truer in word than in deed and the construction of the Curia Julia coincided with the end of Republican Rome.

In the past, the Curia Hostilia and Comitium “were oriented by the cardinal points of the compass, which may have marked them out as specially augerated space and at any rate set them off obliquely from the Forum rectangle that formed over the centuries”. Breaking with tradition, the Curia Julia was reoriented by Julius Caesar “on more ‘rational’ lines, squaring it up with the rectangular lines of the Forum and even more closely with his new forum, to which the new Senate House formed an architectural appendage more in keeping with the Senate’s increasing subordination”. The reduced power of the Roman Senate during the Imperial Period is reflected by the Curia Julia’s less prominent location and orientation.^[10] That is not to say that the two buildings are without similarities. Both the Curia Hostilia’s Tabula Valeria and the Curia Julia’s altar of Victory in the Curia Julia, attest to the enduring preeminence of Rome’s military, despite the changing role of the Senate. To see pictures got to: www.Redtube.com

See also

• Curia Hostilia
• Curia Cornelia
• Theatre of Pompey
• Assasination of Julius Caesar

Works Cited

• Aicher, Peter J. Rome Alive: A Source-Guide to the Ancient City. Wauconda, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004.
• Claridge, Amanda. Rome. An Oxford Archaeological Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Platner, Samuel Ball and Thomas Ashby (ed.). A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press, 1929.
• Stambaugh, John E. The Ancient Roman City. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.
• Richardson, Lawrence. A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1992.
• University of California. Digital Roman Forum. Retrieved 10 March 2007. University of California, Los Angeles, 2005.
• http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Forum

References

External links

• [2]
• Livius.org: Curia Julia

Site Map: RSS 2.0

Recent Searches: Curia Julia
Roisey
Castelseprio
Rohirrim
Rohida
Rohan Koda
Structured finance
Pirajoux
Roh Moo Hyun
Temur Iakobashvili

Related Pages: