<p>The speakers’ platform completed by Augustus at the W end of the *Forum (cf. <i>Dig</i>. 1.2.9.43: <i>pro rostris Augusti</i>), referred to in the Imperial period as <i>rostra Vetera</i> (Suet., <i>Aug</i>. 100.3). The Augustan <i>rostra</i>, heavily restored but still visible, incorporated the earlier <i>rostra</i> that Julius Caesar had built in this area of the Forum (Dio Cass. 43.49.1: 44 B.C.). Caesar’s <i>rostra</i> consisted of a curving façade which faced the Forum and a narrow platform approached from behind by a stair of 7 steps (Coarelli). Augustus seems to have retained the semicircular stair to the Caesarian <i>rostra</i> (cf. Verduchi, <i>LTUR</i>, for the other interpretations of these remains), but extended the platform a full 10 m toward the Forum square, widening the entire structure to form a frontal façade <i>c</i>. 24 m in width (Verduchi 1985). The Augustan <i>rostra</i>, which faced the <i>rostra aedis Divi Iulii</i> on the opposite side of the Forum (*Divus Iulius, Aedes), marked the Forum’s W boundary (cf. Sen., <i>Constant</i>. 1.3).</p>