Curia of Sabratha

Curia

CuriaAfrica Proconsularis · Sabratha, LibyaBuilt 350 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

Sabratha's council chamber, where the city's local senate met, is dated by the one source available to the 4th century CE, roughly two centuries after Trajan died at Selinus, the event this map is frozen at. Whatever building served the city's council under Trajan and Hadrian, if one existed yet, has left no trace that modern archaeologists have managed to recover from the site. Sabratha's civic buildings, like much of its forum, were still taking shape decades after this map's own snapshot date.

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.