DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0540
470
SENACULUM
in more recent times, some lead pipes inscribed with the name of the
same collegium 1 that dedicated the base (BC 1887, 8). Three fragments
of concrete foundations have also been found that may belong to this
temple (RhM 1894, 409 ; BC 1881, 5 ; Mitt. 1889, 274 ; see in general
HJ 400-402 ; Gilb. i. 275-280 ; iii. 370-371 ; Rosch. iv. 317-318 ; Besnier
279-282 ; WR 130-132 ; Mem. Am. Acad. ii. 61-62 ; RE i. A. 2254).
Senaculum : a place where the senators assembled before entering the
curia on formal summons, according to the testimony of writers of the
Augustan age (Varro, LL v. 156 : senaculum supra Graecostasim ubi
aedes Concordiae et basilica Opimia. Senaculum vocatum ubi senatus
aut ubi seniores consisterent ; Vai. Max. ii. 2. 6). It was probably
only an open area in the first place and afterwards a hall. The site of
the senaculum referred to in the passages cited is further determined
by later writers as close to the Volcanal, at the edge of the Comitium
and in front of the basilica Opimia and area Concordiae (Macrob. i. 8. 2 :
habet (i.e. templum Saturni) ararn et ante senaculum ; Fest. 347 : unum
(senaculum) ubi nunc est aedes Concordiae inter Capitolium et Forum).
The original building2 must have been removed when the temple of
Concord was enlarged by Opimius in 121 b.c. (HC 6; Thedenat 104 ;
Mitt. 1893, 87, 91) or by Tiberius in 7 b.c. (TF 49).
In the passage from Festus just quoted, it is stated, on the authority
of a certain Nicostratus of the second century, that there were two
other senacula in Rome where the senate was wont to assemble, one ad
portam Capenam, the other citra aedem Bellonae. Of these senacula
there is no further mention, but the senate met during the year after the
battle of Cannae ad portam Capenam (Liv. xxiii. 32), and many such
meetings took place in the temple of Bellona whenever foreign am-
bassadors, generals desiring a triumph, or any person who could not
lawfully be admitted within the pomerium, were to appear before the
senate (see Bellona, Aedes). It is not certain whether this statement
of Nicostratus is based on a confusion of senaculum and the regular hall
of assembly, or on the fact that such buildings had been erected at these
points (HJ 204, 553 ; Mommsen, Staatsrecht iii. 913-914 ; Becker, Top.
286, 5I6-5I7, 607 ; Jord. i. 2. 337 ; BC 1908, 138-139).
A fourth senaculum seems to be mentioned in Livy (xli. 27. 7 : at
clivum Capitolinum silice sternendum curaverunt et porticum ab aede
Saturni in Capitolium ad senaculum ac super id curiam). If the text is
not corrupt here—as it is in the lines immediately preceding—there must
have been a senaculum on the Capitoline bearing the same relation to
the curia Calabra and the temple of Jupiter that the senaculum below
did to the curia Hostilia. In view of Nicostratus’ statement, and the
apparent needlessness of another senaculum immediately above the
1 The decuria sacerdotum bidentalium (CIL xv. 7253).
2 For a concrete podium which is attributed to it, see Mem. Am. Acad. v. 58-61; cf. also
DR 320, 321.
SENACULUM
in more recent times, some lead pipes inscribed with the name of the
same collegium 1 that dedicated the base (BC 1887, 8). Three fragments
of concrete foundations have also been found that may belong to this
temple (RhM 1894, 409 ; BC 1881, 5 ; Mitt. 1889, 274 ; see in general
HJ 400-402 ; Gilb. i. 275-280 ; iii. 370-371 ; Rosch. iv. 317-318 ; Besnier
279-282 ; WR 130-132 ; Mem. Am. Acad. ii. 61-62 ; RE i. A. 2254).
Senaculum : a place where the senators assembled before entering the
curia on formal summons, according to the testimony of writers of the
Augustan age (Varro, LL v. 156 : senaculum supra Graecostasim ubi
aedes Concordiae et basilica Opimia. Senaculum vocatum ubi senatus
aut ubi seniores consisterent ; Vai. Max. ii. 2. 6). It was probably
only an open area in the first place and afterwards a hall. The site of
the senaculum referred to in the passages cited is further determined
by later writers as close to the Volcanal, at the edge of the Comitium
and in front of the basilica Opimia and area Concordiae (Macrob. i. 8. 2 :
habet (i.e. templum Saturni) ararn et ante senaculum ; Fest. 347 : unum
(senaculum) ubi nunc est aedes Concordiae inter Capitolium et Forum).
The original building2 must have been removed when the temple of
Concord was enlarged by Opimius in 121 b.c. (HC 6; Thedenat 104 ;
Mitt. 1893, 87, 91) or by Tiberius in 7 b.c. (TF 49).
In the passage from Festus just quoted, it is stated, on the authority
of a certain Nicostratus of the second century, that there were two
other senacula in Rome where the senate was wont to assemble, one ad
portam Capenam, the other citra aedem Bellonae. Of these senacula
there is no further mention, but the senate met during the year after the
battle of Cannae ad portam Capenam (Liv. xxiii. 32), and many such
meetings took place in the temple of Bellona whenever foreign am-
bassadors, generals desiring a triumph, or any person who could not
lawfully be admitted within the pomerium, were to appear before the
senate (see Bellona, Aedes). It is not certain whether this statement
of Nicostratus is based on a confusion of senaculum and the regular hall
of assembly, or on the fact that such buildings had been erected at these
points (HJ 204, 553 ; Mommsen, Staatsrecht iii. 913-914 ; Becker, Top.
286, 5I6-5I7, 607 ; Jord. i. 2. 337 ; BC 1908, 138-139).
A fourth senaculum seems to be mentioned in Livy (xli. 27. 7 : at
clivum Capitolinum silice sternendum curaverunt et porticum ab aede
Saturni in Capitolium ad senaculum ac super id curiam). If the text is
not corrupt here—as it is in the lines immediately preceding—there must
have been a senaculum on the Capitoline bearing the same relation to
the curia Calabra and the temple of Jupiter that the senaculum below
did to the curia Hostilia. In view of Nicostratus’ statement, and the
apparent needlessness of another senaculum immediately above the
1 The decuria sacerdotum bidentalium (CIL xv. 7253).
2 For a concrete podium which is attributed to it, see Mem. Am. Acad. v. 58-61; cf. also
DR 320, 321.