Rostra

Reading notes

• Ad Familiares 8.1 §4 the loafers in front of the rostra

  The subrostrani, idlers who hung about the speaker's platform (the Rostra) in the Forum and traded in rumour; Caelius treats them as an unreliable Roman gossip-mill.

• Ad Familiares 12.3 §1 the statue he set up on the Rostra

  Antony erected a statue on the Rostra (the speaker's platform in the Forum) honoring the murdered Caesar, a public provocation to the assassins.

• Ad Quintum Fratrem 2.3 §2 Clodius thrown down from the Rostra

  The Rostra was the speaker's platform in the Forum, named for the ships' beaks (rostra) that adorned it. Clodius had mounted it to answer Pompey before Milo's men drove him off.

• On Duties §3.80 mount the Rostra

  The Rostra was the speaker's platform in the Roman Forum, named from the ships' beaks (rostra) that adorned it. Gratidianus stole his colleagues' credit by announcing a joint currency edict from it alone.

• Second Philippic §68 those beaks of ships in the vestibule

  Pompey's house was adorned with the bronze beaks (rostra) of ships captured in his campaign against the pirates; Antony, who bought the house, now lodges among these trophies of a better man.

• Ninth Philippic §10 If by your decree you set up a statue to him on the Rostra

  The Rostra was the speaker's platform in the Forum, adorned with statues of distinguished Romans. A statue there guaranteed that Sulpicius's embassy would never be forgotten.