The Curia Julia

The best known and best described example of this building type is beyond all doubt the Curia Julia on the Forum Romanum in Rome. But in a certain sense it marks the end of an evolution from an assembly in the circular comitium to the interior of a well defined building. We may say that all the other known examples of free standing, independent curia buildings were tributary to the Roman model.

The construction was initiated by Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. to replace the curia Hostilia. It is not clear why the Hostilia was given up; the building had only recently been restored and enlarged after a fire in 80 B.C. by Faustus Sulla, the son of Sulla. Maybe an explanation can be found in the construction of the Forum Julium: the new building had the same alignment as the new forum and was connected to the portico by two doors in the back.
The building as we know it today is the result of a rebuilding by Diocletianus after a fire that destroyed almost completely the zone between the Forum Julium and the Basilica Julia in 283 A.D. It is possible that the original building stood somewhat in a more north western direction but it certainly had the same alignment and formed a junction between the Forum Julium and the Forum Romanum as well.

The building was a rectangular hall of brick faced concrete 25,20 metres deep, 17,61 metres wide and 15,40 metres high with a very lofty roof that necessitated additional rectangular buttresses at the corners. In front of it, to the side of the forum, was a wide porch with wide-spaced ionic columns which covered the stair that ran across the façade. These stairs led to a single axial entrance. In the free standing part of the façade above the porch we see three windows with bowed lintels. It has been argued that this porch was the chalcidicum; this assumption is based on texts that mention the presence of a chalcidicum but it not very likely that we may identify the porch as such since it was open to the forum as can be seen on augustan coins.

In the interior we see on the left and right sides three broad low steps to accomodate the seating places of the senators. Depending on the accomodation the building could give place to 300 à 465 people: 300 if chairs were used, 465 if the senators were satisfied with benches. Moreover the third step was broader to give place to those who attended the assemby standing. The walls have three niches: the central one with a rounded head, the two others with a triangular pediment. Above these niches there are protruding mouldings, maybe for acoustic reasons as is prescribed by Vitruvius.

In the center of the far end is a low dais for the president of the assembly. In the corners of this wall there are two passages that gave access to the Forum Julium.

The preservation of the building is due to the fact that it has been transformed into the church of S. Adriano by pope Honorius I (625-638). This church was deconsacrated in 1935 and in consequence dismantled to make a restoration and evocation of the ancient curia possible.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A.Boëthius - J.B.Ward-Perkins, Etruscan and Roman architecture, Harmondsworth, 1970
F.Coarelli, Guida archeologica di Roma, 1974
F.Coarelli, Il Foro Romano, Periodo arcaico, Roma, 1983
F.Coarelli, Il Foro Romano, Periodo reppublicano e augustea, Roma, 1985
L.Richardson, jr., A new topographical dictionary of ancient Rome, Baltimore-London, 1992
P.Gros, L'architecture romaine, 1. Les monuments publics, Paris, 1996
Reconstructions by the University of California, Los Angeles

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