The Graecostasis of the Roman Forum and Its Vicinity A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctors of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, 1904 Classic Reprint

Excerpt from The Graecostasis of the Roman Forum and Its Vicinity: A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctors of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, 1904

At the west end of the Forum valley the low ground was ter minated in primitive times by the lowest shelf-like slope of the Capitoline, which is marked roughly by the Temple of Saturn, the Hemicycle, the Arch of Septimius Severus, and a line about midway between the Carcer and the Church of S. Martina. The Career seems to be a little farther from the edge than the other structures mentioned. In front of the Tabularium the shelf was wider owing to the depression between the two summits of the hill. It was along this terrace, outside of the fortifications of the several hills, that the threeraces of the early city met on neutral ground and gradually formed a common government at the same time that they were trading with each other in the middle of the valley and performing common religious ceremonies at the eastern end. Here were erected the first buildings needed for govern ment, a shelter for the lawmakers, open air tribunals for the judges and executive officers, and a prison. When the Tiber was in flood the water came up to this slope, covering the area of the Forum and Comitium and preventing all business there for days at a time. On such occasions business had to be transferred to the higher ground, and it is natural to suppose that as many as possible of the buildings needed for the more important functions of government were placed upon the higher ground out of the reach of floods. Moreover, the use of this low region from the earliest times for assemblies of the people, elections, and public shows must have made it desirable to keep it as free as possible from permanent obstructions. Perhaps this is the reason why so many of the tribunals were movable.

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