DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0531
SAEPTA IULIA
461
125-128 ; Cavazzi, Diaconia di S. Maria in Via Lata (1908), 197 sqq. ;
SR ii. 64, 151 ; and for the last, under the Palazzetto Venezia, NS 1911,
36). The building was a rectangular porticus, extending along the
west side of the Via Lata (Corso), from the aqua Virgo (Frontinus, de aquis
i. 22), the present Via del Caravita, to the Via di S. Marco, a distance of
more than 400 metres (1400-1500 Roman feet). It was built of travertine,
with eight longitudinal rows of piers, and 60 metres (that is, 200 Roman
feet) deep. The first row, along the Via Lata, was ornamented with
a balustrade. Four of the inner piers under the Palazzo Doria, belonging
to the fourth and fifth rows, were measured by Hiilsen. They are
1.70 metres square, 4 metres apart in the north-south direction and 6.20
in the other. Other piers further west show different dimensions (NS
1877, 208). Cf. also RA 93-96. Remains were also found when the
Palazzo Simonetti (north of S. Maria in Via Lata) was converted into the
Banco di Roma, consisting of Hadrianie brick pilasters (obviously
therefore his restoration) about which no information has been published.
Lanciani has maintained that the saepta did not extend quite so far
south, and that its southern limit was marked by an ancient street which
is said to have been found in 1875 running from the Corso to the main
door of the Palazzo Venezia (LR 474 ; LF 21 ; HJ 560, n. 7), perhaps
the same as that reported to have been found in 1455 (LS i. 58). The
evidence for the antiquity of this street is not conclusive, and is offset
by the discovery of the masonry under the Palazzetto Venezia.1
Whether this porticus, which constituted the saepta in the third
century after the restorations or rebuildings of Domitian and Hadrian,
represents in any considerable degree the saepta of Agrippa, is an open
question. Some evidence for the affirmative is found in the existing
masonry, which is characteristic of the Augustan rather than of the later
periods, and the length of the building affords just room for eighty or
eighty-two lateral sections of the dimensions illustrated by the piers
described above, a fact that suggests a comparison with the number of
centuries voting in the comitia centuriata. If this does represent in the
main the saepta of Augustus, we must suppose that gladiatorial combats,
and still more certainly naval battles, took place in an open area on the
west side of the porticus and were witnessed from its roof or upper
story, as well as from platforms erected in the arcades. Gradually,
however, this open area was covered with new buildings, like the Iseum
and porticus Divorum (HJ 558-562 ; BC 1893, 119-142 ; Richter 230-232 ;
RE i. A. 1724-1727).
According to a view which has been set forth with some plausibility
(BC 1893, 136-142), the Diribitorium (q.v.), or hall where the votes
were counted, was not a separate structure, but the upper story of the
saepta. This theory accounts for the massive character of the masonry
that has been found, and for other difficulties (HJ cit.).
1 See also supra, 152, n. 1.
461
125-128 ; Cavazzi, Diaconia di S. Maria in Via Lata (1908), 197 sqq. ;
SR ii. 64, 151 ; and for the last, under the Palazzetto Venezia, NS 1911,
36). The building was a rectangular porticus, extending along the
west side of the Via Lata (Corso), from the aqua Virgo (Frontinus, de aquis
i. 22), the present Via del Caravita, to the Via di S. Marco, a distance of
more than 400 metres (1400-1500 Roman feet). It was built of travertine,
with eight longitudinal rows of piers, and 60 metres (that is, 200 Roman
feet) deep. The first row, along the Via Lata, was ornamented with
a balustrade. Four of the inner piers under the Palazzo Doria, belonging
to the fourth and fifth rows, were measured by Hiilsen. They are
1.70 metres square, 4 metres apart in the north-south direction and 6.20
in the other. Other piers further west show different dimensions (NS
1877, 208). Cf. also RA 93-96. Remains were also found when the
Palazzo Simonetti (north of S. Maria in Via Lata) was converted into the
Banco di Roma, consisting of Hadrianie brick pilasters (obviously
therefore his restoration) about which no information has been published.
Lanciani has maintained that the saepta did not extend quite so far
south, and that its southern limit was marked by an ancient street which
is said to have been found in 1875 running from the Corso to the main
door of the Palazzo Venezia (LR 474 ; LF 21 ; HJ 560, n. 7), perhaps
the same as that reported to have been found in 1455 (LS i. 58). The
evidence for the antiquity of this street is not conclusive, and is offset
by the discovery of the masonry under the Palazzetto Venezia.1
Whether this porticus, which constituted the saepta in the third
century after the restorations or rebuildings of Domitian and Hadrian,
represents in any considerable degree the saepta of Agrippa, is an open
question. Some evidence for the affirmative is found in the existing
masonry, which is characteristic of the Augustan rather than of the later
periods, and the length of the building affords just room for eighty or
eighty-two lateral sections of the dimensions illustrated by the piers
described above, a fact that suggests a comparison with the number of
centuries voting in the comitia centuriata. If this does represent in the
main the saepta of Augustus, we must suppose that gladiatorial combats,
and still more certainly naval battles, took place in an open area on the
west side of the porticus and were witnessed from its roof or upper
story, as well as from platforms erected in the arcades. Gradually,
however, this open area was covered with new buildings, like the Iseum
and porticus Divorum (HJ 558-562 ; BC 1893, 119-142 ; Richter 230-232 ;
RE i. A. 1724-1727).
According to a view which has been set forth with some plausibility
(BC 1893, 136-142), the Diribitorium (q.v.), or hall where the votes
were counted, was not a separate structure, but the upper story of the
saepta. This theory accounts for the massive character of the masonry
that has been found, and for other difficulties (HJ cit.).
1 See also supra, 152, n. 1.