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Curia
Julia was built in 44 BC, when Julius Caesar replaced the restored
Curia Cornelius Faust Cornelius Sulla, who herself replaced the more
ancient Curia Hotilia. Caesar did this to redesign both spaces
within Komitas and the Roman Forum. However, this work was
interrupted by the murder of Caesar at the Theater of Pompey, where
the Senate met temporarily, until the work was completed. The
project was ultimately completed by Caesar's successor, Augustus
Caesar, in 29 BC.
Curia Julia - one of the few Roman
buildings, which is still preserved mainly untouched due to its
transformation into the Basilica of Sant Adriano al Foro in the 7th
century and a few late restorations. However, the roof, the upper
facades of the side walls and the rear facade are modern and belong
to the reconstruction of the deconservation church in the 1930s.
Curia was later restored by Emperor Domitian in 94 AD e., and then
the emperor Diocletian in the 3rd century. Inside you can see two
panels that were removed from the rostra for preservation. One
depicts a meeting with a simple woman with a child, the other
depicts the act of burning tax documents. Thus, Guy Julius Caesar
eliminated all the debts of Roman citizens.
The building owes its name to the assemblies of
the "curiates", that is of the citizens gathered according to the
curiae, which took place in the Comitium; here was the first curia
of Rome, the Curia Hostilia, built according to legend by Tullo
Ostilio, third king of Rome. After being damaged in a fire in 52 BC
it was restored, but shortly after Julius Caesar began the
construction works of the Forum of Caesar, which affected the whole
area of the Forum: both the Rostra and the Curia were rebuilt in a
more scenic position, with a more monumental structure.
The
building that took the name of Curia Iulia, and which is still
visible today, was completed and inaugurated by Octavian on August
28, 29 BC. Restored under Domitian in 94, it was rebuilt again by
Diocletian following the fire of 283 during the reign of Emperor
Carino. In the Curia there was also the altar of Victory.
At
the time of King Theodoric, the meetings of the Senate were still
held in the Curia, which survived the fall of the Western Roman
Empire, but was then reduced to a shadow: at that time the building
was no longer called by its classical name of Curia, but with that
of Atrium Libertatis. The name Atrium Libertatis was taken from a
nearby building, probably destroyed or used for other uses already
before the 6th century, and independent, where in ancient times the
liberation of slaves took place. With the fall of the Gothic reign
of Theodoric, the Curia was abandoned.
In 630, during the
pontificate of Pope Honorius I, the building was transformed into a
church, taking the name of Sant'Adriano al Foro. The church was
decorated with Byzantine frescoes, still partially visible, and
equipped with a bell tower; it was then restored in Baroque style by
Martino Longhi the Younger in 1653. Thanks to these vicissitudes the
Curia was not demolished and today it is one of the best preserved
late antique buildings in all of Rome.
After a long debate
that passed from historians - at the beginning of the twentieth
century - to the parliamentary halls, the Curia between 1930 and
1936 was involved in the excavation campaign of the Forum and on
that occasion it was decided to bring the important building back to
its profane aspect: the church was deconsecrated, depriving it of
all subsequent additions to the Diocletian era.
The appearance of the Curia had previously been
misunderstood on the basis of a drawing by Antonio da Sangallo the
Younger, who had portrayed it as a set of buildings composed, in
addition to the main building, by a Chalcidicum, a Secretarium Senatus
and an Atrium Minervae.
The Chalcidicum in reality must have been
nothing more than the colonnaded portico in front of the Curia, also
represented on a coin from the Augustan era; the Secretarium Senatus,
which was erroneously referred to as the secretariat, was actually a
special court for senators and was established only in the late imperial
era, probably by adapting one of the tabernae of the nearby Forum of
Caesar; finally, the Atrium Minervae would have been nothing more than
an erroneous designation of the Forum of Nerva.
Recent studies,
supported by excavations, have instead ascertained the presence behind
the Curia of some environments, generally identified as the Atrium
Libertatis.
The Curia was contiguous to the Forum of Caesar, so
much so that it seemed an appendage (certainly not a casual position,
with which the dictator probably wanted to emphasize his patronage over
Roman institutions). The building that can still be admired today has a
rectangular plan, with four external pillars on the sides that act as
buttresses. The two facades are crowned by tympanums; on the main one
there are three arched windows and a single portal profiled in
travertine; on the sides of the portal there are also some medieval
burial niches. The bronze entrance portal from the Diocletian era is a
copy of the original, which was brought to San Giovanni in Laterano in
the 17th century.
The large internal compartment respects the
proportions recommended by Vitruvius for the curias, according to which
the height must have been about half the sum of length and width (the
current measurements are 21 meters high with a base of 18 x 27 meters).
The considerable height is to be recognized as a probable device for
acoustics. The wooden roof is obviously modern and in ancient times it
was with flat beams.
The flooring has been partially rebuilt with
ancient marble according to the Diocletian era layout, as well as the
architectural decoration of the walls, marked by niches that housed
statues, framed by columns on shelves. The Byzantine paintings, on the
other hand, visible above all on the counter-façade, date back to the
transformation into a church in the seventh century.
The hall is
divided into three sectors, with three wide and low steps on the right
and left, where the approximately three hundred seats for the senators
were located.
On the back wall, between two doors, is the base
for the presidency, where the base of the statue of Victory is also
located. This statue on which the senators swore loyalty to the Republic
had been brought to Rome from Taranto by Octavian and was an object of
particular symbolic devotion for the Roman institutions. It was the
subject of a bitter controversy between Christians and pagans at the end
of the 4th century. It was removed for the first time in 357 by Emperor
Constantius II, a fervent Aryan, but was relocated to the Senate during
the reign of Julian. In 382 Graziano, accepting the requests of Ambrose
of Milan, bishop of the then capital of Pars Occidentis, again had her
removed from the hall. There followed in 384, under the reign of
Valentinian II, the dispute between Ambrose of Milan and Quintus
Aurelius Simmaco, a pagan senator and fierce opponent of Christianity
who, from praefectus urbi, worked hard for the reintegration of the Ara
in the Senate. On the death of Valentinian II, the altar was placed
again in the hall by Eugenio (392-394) to be definitively removed in 394
by Theodosius after the victory at Frigido over Eugenio.
Today
inside the Curia two large reliefs are exhibited, found in the center of
the Forum and called Trajan's plutei or anaglyphs. They are perhaps
balustrades of a tribune, probably erected in place of the equestrian
statue of Domitian and it appears less likely, albeit according to
rather persistent beliefs, that they were part of the Rostra. Scenes
from the principality of Trajan are represented:
the one on the left
has a Scene of the amnesty of citizens' debts (incomplete);
the one
on the right has The institution of alimenta (low-interest agricultural
loans for the support of poor children).
The scenes are
particularly interesting because they take place in the Forum, of which
they give a rare ancient representation: you can recognize in both the
statue of Marsyas next to the Ficus navia, formerly the center of the
square, and the southern side of the same. In the one on the left you
can see (from the right) the Rostra, the temple of Vespasian and Titus
(with the Corinthian order), an arch, perhaps from the Tabularium, the
Temple of Saturn (Ionic), the void of the Vicus Iugarius and the arches
of the basilica Giulia. In the one on the right you can see the
continuation of the basilica Giulia, the arch of Augustus, the Rostrums
of the temple of the Divine Julius; the emperor is depicted in front of
the basilica Julia seated on a podium, perhaps the same from which the
reliefs come. On the reverse of both are depicted the sacrificial
animals of Roman solemnities: pig, sheep and bull.