DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0618
540 TRIBUNAL PRAETORIS
tribunali Aurelii ; de domo 54, post red. ad Quir. 13 : in tribunal!
Aurelii).
In two other passages Cicero speaks of gradus Aurelii, once in con-
nection with the trial of C. lunius in 74 b.c. (pro Clu. 93 : gradus illi
Aurelii turn novi quasi pro theatro illi iudicio aedificati videbantur ;
quos ubi accusator concitatis hominibus complerat, non modo dicendi
ab reo, sed ne surgendi quidem potestas erat), and again in 59 b.c. (pro
Flacc. 66 : hoc nimirum est illud quod non longe a gradibus Aurelii
haec causa dicitur). These gradus, being new {novi), were probably
built by M. Aurelius Cotta, consul in that year (74), and as they were
occupied by those in attendance upon the jury trials, gradus and tribunal
probably belonged together. Either the terms were used without
distinction, or the gradus led up to the tribunal. These tribunalia were
usually temporary structures of wood (cf. Plut. Caes. 68 ; Suet. Caes.
84 ; App. BC ii. 148) : this one, or at least the gradus, was certainly of
stone. There is no indication of its site, and since it is not mentioned
after the time of Cicero, it was probably removed during the changes
carried out by Caesar and Augustus (Jord. i. 2, 405 ; Thedenat, 148 ;
RE ii. 2430 ; Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, 1904, 178-182,
where, however, the identification of the gradus Aurelii and the so-called
hemicycle of the rostra is erroneous).
Tribunal Praetoris : the judgment seat of the praetor, always apparently
a movable wooden platform, which stood originally on the comitium
(Liv. xxvii. 50. 9 ; Jord. i. I. 499-500 ; Mommsen, Jahrb. des. Gem. d.
Rechts vi. 389 if., Jurist. Schriften, iii. 319-326).1 It was transferred
to the forum at some later date, perhaps about the middle of the second
century b.c., and set up sometimes at least near the Puteal Libonis
(q.v.) and the arcus Fabianus (Porphyr. ad Flor. Epist. i. 19. 8 ; Jord,
i. 2. 402-403).
In the travertine pavement of the Augustan age in front of the column
of Phocas are the matrices of the bronze letters, 30 centimetres high, of
an inscription—L. Naevius L. [f. Surjdinus pr. This is the same inscrip-
tion that is found on the back of the archaistic relief of Mettius Curtius
(S. Sculp. 324-326 ; SScR 316 ; Cons. 36)—L. Naevius L. f. Surdinus
prfaetor] inter civis et peregrinos (CIL vi. 1468). Naevius was triumvir
monetalis in 23 b.c. (BM. Aug. 139-146 ; cf. p. xcv), and the inscriptions
seem to indicate that he constructed a praetor’s tribunal at this point in
the forum, as well as repairing it (see Forum Romanum, p. 234, n. 1 ;
ZA 86 ; DR 73, 74 ; RE Suppl. iv. 504 ; HFP 27, 28), in connection
with Augustus’ rebuilding of the rostra. It is possible that this was the
usual place for the praetor’s seat after it had been moved from the
comitium (cf. another praetor’s inscription, CIL vi. 1278, found here in
1817). The structure of Naevius was not monumental, but the traditional
wooden platform may have been provided with a stone foundation, or an
1 See also Staatsrecht i. 399, 400 ; iii. 383 (cf. xii. n. 1).
tribunali Aurelii ; de domo 54, post red. ad Quir. 13 : in tribunal!
Aurelii).
In two other passages Cicero speaks of gradus Aurelii, once in con-
nection with the trial of C. lunius in 74 b.c. (pro Clu. 93 : gradus illi
Aurelii turn novi quasi pro theatro illi iudicio aedificati videbantur ;
quos ubi accusator concitatis hominibus complerat, non modo dicendi
ab reo, sed ne surgendi quidem potestas erat), and again in 59 b.c. (pro
Flacc. 66 : hoc nimirum est illud quod non longe a gradibus Aurelii
haec causa dicitur). These gradus, being new {novi), were probably
built by M. Aurelius Cotta, consul in that year (74), and as they were
occupied by those in attendance upon the jury trials, gradus and tribunal
probably belonged together. Either the terms were used without
distinction, or the gradus led up to the tribunal. These tribunalia were
usually temporary structures of wood (cf. Plut. Caes. 68 ; Suet. Caes.
84 ; App. BC ii. 148) : this one, or at least the gradus, was certainly of
stone. There is no indication of its site, and since it is not mentioned
after the time of Cicero, it was probably removed during the changes
carried out by Caesar and Augustus (Jord. i. 2, 405 ; Thedenat, 148 ;
RE ii. 2430 ; Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, 1904, 178-182,
where, however, the identification of the gradus Aurelii and the so-called
hemicycle of the rostra is erroneous).
Tribunal Praetoris : the judgment seat of the praetor, always apparently
a movable wooden platform, which stood originally on the comitium
(Liv. xxvii. 50. 9 ; Jord. i. I. 499-500 ; Mommsen, Jahrb. des. Gem. d.
Rechts vi. 389 if., Jurist. Schriften, iii. 319-326).1 It was transferred
to the forum at some later date, perhaps about the middle of the second
century b.c., and set up sometimes at least near the Puteal Libonis
(q.v.) and the arcus Fabianus (Porphyr. ad Flor. Epist. i. 19. 8 ; Jord,
i. 2. 402-403).
In the travertine pavement of the Augustan age in front of the column
of Phocas are the matrices of the bronze letters, 30 centimetres high, of
an inscription—L. Naevius L. [f. Surjdinus pr. This is the same inscrip-
tion that is found on the back of the archaistic relief of Mettius Curtius
(S. Sculp. 324-326 ; SScR 316 ; Cons. 36)—L. Naevius L. f. Surdinus
prfaetor] inter civis et peregrinos (CIL vi. 1468). Naevius was triumvir
monetalis in 23 b.c. (BM. Aug. 139-146 ; cf. p. xcv), and the inscriptions
seem to indicate that he constructed a praetor’s tribunal at this point in
the forum, as well as repairing it (see Forum Romanum, p. 234, n. 1 ;
ZA 86 ; DR 73, 74 ; RE Suppl. iv. 504 ; HFP 27, 28), in connection
with Augustus’ rebuilding of the rostra. It is possible that this was the
usual place for the praetor’s seat after it had been moved from the
comitium (cf. another praetor’s inscription, CIL vi. 1278, found here in
1817). The structure of Naevius was not monumental, but the traditional
wooden platform may have been provided with a stone foundation, or an
1 See also Staatsrecht i. 399, 400 ; iii. 383 (cf. xii. n. 1).