The Comitium (Italian: Comizio) was the original open-air public meeting space of Ancient Rome, and had major religious and prophetic significance.[1] The name comes from the Latin word for "assembly".[2] The Comitium location at the northwest corner of the Roman Forum was later[vague] lost in the city's growth and development, but was rediscovered and excavated by archaeologists at the turn of the twentieth century.[citation needed] Some of Rome's earliest monuments; including the speaking platform known as the Rostra, the Columna Maenia, the Graecostasis and the Tabula Valeria were part of or associated with the Comitium.
The Comitium was the location for much of the political and judicial activity of Rome.[when?] It was the meeting place of the Curiate Assembly, the earliest Popular assembly of organised voting divisions of the Republic.[3] Later, during the Roman Republic, the Tribal Assembly and Plebeian Assembly met there. The Comitium was in front of the meeting house of the Roman Senate – the still-existing Curia Julia and its predecessor, the Curia Hostilia. The Curia Julia is associated with the Comitium by both Livy and Cicero.[4]
Most Roman cities had a similar Comitium for public meetings (L. contiones) or assemblies for election, councils and tribunals.[5] As part of the forum, where temples, commerce, judicial, and city buildings were located, the Comitium was the center of political activity. Romans tended to organize their needs into specific locations within the city. As the city grew, the larger Comitia Centuriata met on the Campus Martius, outside the city walls. The Comitium remained of importance for formal elections of some magistrates; however, as their importance decayed after the end of the republic, so did the importance of the Comitium.[6]
^Vasaly, Ann (1993). Representations. University of California Press. pp. 61–64. ISBN 978-0-520-20178-1.
^Definition of comitium
^Willis, George (2005). The Roman assemblies from their origin to the end of the republic. Adamant Media Corporation. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-4021-3683-2.
^Burn, Robert (January 1, 1871). Rome and the Campagna. Deighton, Bell, and Co.; First Edition. pp. 82.
^Taylor, Lily Ross (February 15, 1991). Roman voting assemblies from the Hannibalic War to the dictatorship of Caesar. University of Michigan Press. pp. 21. ISBN 978-0-472-08125-7.
^E. Burton-Brown (1905). Recent excavations in the Roman Forum, 1898–1905. Scribner's. pp. 81.
The Comitium (Italian: Comizio) was the original open-air public meeting space of Ancient Rome, and had major religious and prophetic significance. The...
the Vulcanal (Shrine of Vulcan), developed into the Republic's formal Comitium (assembly area). This was where the Senate—as well as Republican government...
did so to redesign both spaces within the Comitium and the Roman Forum. The alterations within the Comitium reduced the prominence of the Senate and cleared...
periods. Speakers would stand on the rostra and face the north side of the Comitium towards the senate house and deliver orations to those assembled in between...
enlarged in 80 BC by Lucius Cornelius Sulla during his renovations of the comitium. That building burned down in 52 BC when the supporters of the murdered...
and Comitium. The Comitium at Cosa is a fairly new discovery and shows many similarities to Rome. The Curia lies on the northern end of the Comitium. The...
reigned 673–642 BC). The Curia Hostilia stood on the north end of the Comitium, where the comitia curiata and other Roman assemblies met, and was oriented...
sanctuary to Vulcan) it constitutes the only surviving remnants of the old Comitium, an early assembly area that preceded the Forum and is thought to derive...
for caelum. Citations and discussion by Michel Huhm, "Le mundus et le Comitium: Représentations symboliques de l'espace de la cité," Histoire urbaine...
Tullianum, was a prison (carcer) with a dungeon (oubliette) located in the Comitium in ancient Rome. It is said to have been built in the 7th century BC and...
was a platform in the Comitium near the Roman Forum, located to the west of the Rostra. Placed at the southwest end of the Comitium, the platform was the...
This list of monuments of the Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) includes existing and former buildings, memorials and other built structures in the famous Roman...
built in Rome. Its construction took over a great deal of the traditional comitium space and brought the senate building into a commanding location within...
to build in this section of Rome and rearranged both the Forum and the Comitium, another forum type space designated for politics, to do so. These fora...
next level, each supervising several Praesidia. The next level is the Comitium, which is in charge of several Curiae, usually over an area like a medium...
Second Triumvirate Battle of Philippi Bellum Siculum War of Actium Places Caesareum Comitium Curia Julia Curia Hostilia Rostra Theatre of Pompey v t e...
Second Triumvirate Battle of Philippi Bellum Siculum War of Actium Places Caesareum Comitium Curia Julia Curia Hostilia Rostra Theatre of Pompey v t e...
of the Capitoline Hill in Rome in the area that would later become the Comitium and Roman Forum. It was located in the open here, between the hill-villages...
Second Triumvirate Battle of Philippi Bellum Siculum War of Actium Places Caesareum Comitium Curia Julia Curia Hostilia Rostra Theatre of Pompey v t e...
ration of food. He would also be honoured with a bronze statue in the comitium. Polybius' account uses Horatius as an example of the men who have "devoted...
the tree was miraculously transplanted by the augur Attus Navius to the Comitium. This fig tree, however, was the Ficus Navia, so called for the augur....
Second Triumvirate Battle of Philippi Bellum Siculum War of Actium Places Caesareum Comitium Curia Julia Curia Hostilia Rostra Theatre of Pompey v t e...
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