Curia of the Old Forum
About
Leptis Magna's town council met in a senate house built beside the Old Forum, but scholars disagree on exactly when: a 2018 monograph on the building leans toward Hadrian's reign, after 117 CE, while other accounts place an earlier phase under Trajan. Excavation placed it on the east side of the Old Forum, near the temples of Roma and Augustus and Liber Pater. Given the unresolved dating, this map marks the curia as not yet standing on 11 August 117 CE.
What happened here
The doors stand open during a session, so the crowd outside can hear. Inside, the order of speaking is the order of rank, and a man's whole career is measured by how early his name is called. Members sit on tiered benches facing each other rather than a chair, which makes the room argumentative by design. Business is read out by a clerk: letters from governors, embassies waiting in the corridor, requests for temple money, permission for a town to build. Voting is done with the feet, one side of the room against the other. Nothing said inside leaves formally, and everything said inside is repeated by evening. In a provincial town the local council does the same work in a smaller room, and cares about it just as much.
Sources
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-archaeology/article/abs/reconstructing-the-history-and-architecture-of-the-curia-in-the-forum-vetus-at-lepcis-magna-monica-livadiotti-and-giorgio-rocco-with-contributions-by-roberta-belli-pasqua-antonello-fino-giuseppe-mazzilli-and-luciano-piepoli-exornata-aedes-la-curia-del-foro-vecchio-di-leptis-magna-monografie-di-archeologia-libica-xlvi-lerma-di-bretschneider-roma-2018-pp-468-figs-368-7-loose-plans-in-pocket-isbn-988891317438-eur-350/55C87C2DB9EF8915C20691273D768D02
- https://vici.org/vici/26571/
Nearby
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →