Curia Iulia

The Senate house on the N side of the *Forum projected and perhaps begun by Caesar in 44 B.C. (Dio Cass. 44.5.1-2: Ἰούλιον ὀνομασθείη; cf. 45.17.8) and essentially built by Augustus in 29 B.C. (RG 19.1; Dio Cass. 51.22.1: τὸ Ἰουλίειον; cf. Gell., NA 14.7.7: in Iulia [sc. curia]). Built in conjunction with the new *Forum Iulium, the Curia Iulia replaced the Curia Hostilia which Faustus Sulla had recently rebuilt following its burning in 52 B.C. (Cic., Fin. 5.2; cf. Cic., Mil. 90; Dio Cass. 40.49.2-3; *“Felicitas”). Diocletian restored the Curia after the fire of A.D. 283 (Chron. 148), but excavations in 1986 revealed that the Diocletianic building, which we see today, had the same orientation and dimensions as the Augustan Curia (Morselli and Tortorici). In his Res Gestae, Augustus states that he ‘built the curia and the Chalcidicum next to it’ (19: curiam et continens ei Chalcidicum … feci). Dio too mentions the Chalcidicum, which he associates with the building of the Curia Iulia (51.22.1), but the identification of the Chalcidicum is still debated. It was either a colonnaded porch which extended beyond either end of the façade of the Augustan Curia, as shown on Augustan coins which may depict the Curia Iulia (RIC I2 60, no. 266), or was instead the E portico of the Forum Iulium, which shares a foundation with the Augustan Curia (s.v. Forum Iulium).