Curia
About
Timgad's curia, the council house of a hundred veteran colonists, went up on the forum's north side around 116 CE. Marble-faced walls enclosed three bays where the town's ordo decurionum met to run daily business. Statue bases still lining its portico once held honors for local benefactors. It was among the last pieces of the founding civic core to reach completion, rising in the very years Trajan died in Cilicia. Dated by excavators to about 116-117 CE, essentially contemporary with this map's snapshot date; construction was likely finished or nearly finished by 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
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 →