Everything about The Pomerium totally explained
The
pomerium (or
pomoerium), from post + moerium>murum (wall), was the sacred boundary of the city of
Rome. In legal terms, Rome existed only within the
pomerium; everything beyond it was simply land belonging to Rome.
Location and extensions
Tradition maintained that it was the original line ploughed by
Romulus around the walls of the original city, and that it was inaugurated by
Servius Tullius, although this is unlikely. It didn't follow the line of the
Servian walls, although it remained unchanged until the
Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, in a demonstration of his absolute power, expanded it in
80 BC. Several white
cippi stones commissioned by
Claudius have been found
in situ and several have been found away from their original location. These stones mark the boundaries and relative dimensions of the pomerium extension by
Claudius. This extension is recorded in
Tacitus.
Aulus Gellius also reports extensions by
Caesar Augustus,
Nero, and
Trajan, but no other written or archaeological evidence supports this.
The pomerium wasn't a walled area (unlike the Chinese
Forbidden City), but rather a legally and religiously defined one marked by
cippi: It encompassed neither the entire metropolitan area nor even all the proverbial Seven Hills (the
Palatine Hill was within the
pomerium, but the
Capitoline and
Aventine Hills were not). The
Curia Hostilia and the well of the Comitia in the
Forum Romanum, two extremely important locations in the government of the
city-state and its empire, were located within the
pomerium. The temple of
Bellona was beyond the
pomerium.
Associated restrictions
- The magistrates who held imperium didn't have full power inside the pomerium. They could have a citizen beaten, but not sentenced to death. This was symbolised by removing the axes from the fasces carried by the magistrate's lictors. Only the dictator's lictors could carry fasces containing axes.
Religious and political constraints forbade any anointed sovereign from entering the pomerium. As a result, visits of state were somewhat awkward; Cleopatra, for example, never actually entered the city of Rome when she came to visit Julius Caesar.
It was forbidden to bury the dead inside the pomerium. During his life, Julius Caesar received in advance the right to a tomb inside the pomerium, but his ashes were actually placed in his family tomb. However, Trajan's ashes were interred after his death in AD 117 at the foot of his Column, which was within the pomerium.[
Furthermore, (provincial) promagistrates and generals were forbidden from entering it, and resigned their imperium immediately upon crossing it (as it were the superlative form of the ban on armies entering Italy). As a result, a general waiting to celebrate a triumph with his victorious troops was required to wait outside the pomerium until his triumph. Under the Republic, soldiers also lost their status when entering, becoming citizens. The soldiers when they participated in their general's triumph wore their civilian outfits. The Comitia Centuriata, one of the Roman assemblies, consisting of centuriae (voting units, but originally military battalions within the legions), was required to meet on the Campus Martius outside the pomerium.
Pompey's Theater, where Julius Caesar was murdered, was also outside the pomerium and included a Senate chamber where the Senate could meet with the attendance of individual senators who were forbidden to cross the pomerium and thus wouldn't have been able to meet in the Curia Hostilia.
Weapons were also banned inside the pomerium for religious and traditional reasons. Praetorian guards were allowed in only in civilian dress (toga), and were then called collectively cohors togata. But it was possible to sneak in daggers (the proverbial weapon for political violence, see sicarius). Since Julius Caesar's assassination occurred outside this boundary, the senatorial conspirators couldn't be charged with blasphemy for carrying weapons inside the sacred city.]
Further Information
Get more info on 'Pomerium'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://pomerium.totallyexplained.com">Pomerium Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
