Rostra

The Rostra was the speakers platform on the Forum Romanum

The Rostra was the speakers platform on the Forum Romanum in Imperial Rome. It was also called the Rostra vetera to distinguish it from the new speakers platform in front of the Temple of Divus Julius. The Rostra is located in the main square, between the Arch of Septimius Severus and the Temple of Saturn, in front of the Temple of Concord and the Temple of Vespasian and Titus.

The speakers platform was originally placed on the Comitium, but moved to the main square of the forum by Julius Caesar in 44 BCE.

The name of the platform comes from the decoration on the front. It consisted of the beak-like prows, called rostra, of the ships conquered in the battle of Antium in 338 BCE during the Latin War. The name and the decoration was moved with the platform from the Comitium. The holes used to mount the rostra are still visible.

The platform is built of tufa blocks, and has a length of 23.8m. From reliefs on the Arch of Constantine we know it was adorned with columns and statues. The semicircular marble decorations on the back of the platform was added by Augustus in 42 BCE.

The currently visible front is much restored.

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  1. Ron says:

    Thank you for the interesting photos and information:

    I read further in Augustus Hare, Walks in Rome. London 1871:

    “Rather in front of the Arch of Severus, on the south side, in front of the curved platform which connects the Umbilicus Romae with the Milliarium Aureum, a rectangular platform seventy-eight feet long and eleven feet high has been unearthed, which has been identified with the Rostra of Julius Caesar. Nothing remains of the marble facing, but the brick facing is of interest, as the earliest example in Rome of known date — 44 B.C. Along the top of the cornice runs a groove, with holes where the marble balustrades were fixed to prevent people being pushed from the platform. In one part the groove is discontinued, as there was no screen there, in order that the whole figure of the orator might be seen by the people below, as is seen in a relief on the Arch of Constantine, in which he is shown here addressing the people ; the different buildings of the forum being represented in the background, so as to show the exact position of the rostra. Holes and metal pins still exist, showing where the bronze beaks of ships {rostra) were affixed to the front of the platform, nineteen in the lower, twenty in the upper tier. Where the lower tiers are fixed are upright grooves, supposed to have been intended to hold bronze pilasters ; these grooves appear also on the end walls. The rostra affixed to the platform are said to have been the original beaks of the ships from Antium, transferred by Caesar from the earlier rostra. It was on this second rostra that the body of Julius Caesar was exhibited to the crowd by Antony, and here the head and hand of Cicero were hung up after his murder by Antony in 44 B.C., and Fulvia, the widow of Clodius, spat in his dead face. In front of the rostra were the statues of the three Sibyls called Tria Fata…”

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