Rostra

THE ROSTRA

The word rostra means "ships' beaks" or "ships' prows" and the reason why the speaker's platform had this name was that as early as the 4th century BC, the platform was decorated with ships' prows taken as spoils in a naval battle against the Latins at Anzio (see prows attached to the rostra on the coin above). The rostra was perhaps the most important, but not the only place in the Forum from which speeches were given; for example, the podium of the temple of Castor and Pollux was also used as a rostrum (in English we use the singular of rostra). The speeches given from the rostra were predominantly political, but it was also the custom for aristocrats to give funeral eulogies for relatives (mostly male, sometimes female) from this platform with the body of the deceased on display, either in an upright position or supine. Also, actors wearing wax masks depicting prominent the faces of family ancestors took their places on the rostra, wearing togas and sitting on special chairs, appropriate to the high offices these ancestors had held.

Marc Antony made a very unpleasant use of the rostra during the proscription¹ of 43 BC.

And Antonius also commanded them to whom he had given commission to kill

Cicero, that they should strike off his head and right hand, with which he had

written the invective orations, called Philippics, against Antonius. So, when

the murderers brought him Cicero's head and hand cut off, he beheld them a

long time with great joy and laughed heartily....Then when he had taken his

pleasure of the sight of them, he cause them to be set up in an open place,

over the rostra (where when he was alive he had often spoken to the people),

as if he had done the dead man hurt and not blemished his own fortune,

showing himself (to his great shame and infamy), a cruel man and unworthy

of the name and authority he held.

Plutarch, Life of Antony, 20-21: North's translation (adapted).

Here is what survives of the rostra today (lower foreground). Note the eight columns of the temple of Saturn behind and to the left of the rostra.

Note

1. A proscription was a published list of Roman citizens who were declared public enemies and whose property was confiscated. The proscribed were hunted down by soldiers and executed. Victors in civil wars of the late republic typically proscribed their personal and political enemies to eliminate any opposition.

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