Saepta Iulia

An open rectangular piazza of extraordinary dimensions (c. 310 x 120 m), enclosed by porticoes in the *Campus Martius and intended for the casting of votes by the comitia tributa (assembly of tribes). Planned by Julius Caesar in 54 B.C. (Cic., Att. 4.16.8), the Saepta was continued by M. Aemilius Lepidus (RE I Aemilius 73) after Caesar’s death and dedicated as the Saepta Iulia in 26 B.C. by M. Agrippa to honor Augustus (Dio Cass. 53.23.1-2: τὰ Σέπτα ... Ἰούλια; regularly called only Saepta: e.g., Pliny, NH 36.29; Suet., Aug. 43.1). Located E of the *Pantheum, *Thermae of Agrippa, *Stagnum and *Hecatostylum, N of the *Diribitorium to which it was joined, W of the *Isis Campensis temple, and S of the *Aqua Virgo, the piazza was framed by two porticoes: the Porticus Meleagri on the E (PORTIC[VS] M[EL]EAGRI: Severan Marble Plan, frags. 35 u,v,z,o,aa; Reg. Cats. Regio IX), and *Stoa of Poseidon on the W (Reg. Cats. Regio IX; for other sources and names, s.v. Stoa of Poseidon). Gatti’s pioneering studies of the Severan Marble Plan (Gatti 1934; id. 1937) determined the location and extent of the Saepta, and allowed a wall of Hadrianic brick preserved immediately E of the Pantheon (along the W edge of Via della Minerva) to be identified as the W exterior wall of the Stoa of Poseidon (Guidobaldi 118, 130). More recent discoveries below Piazza S. Macuto and in the crypt of SS. Stimmate di S. Francesco have brought to light portions of the Saepta’s E and S walls, respectively (E. Gatti, Tortorici 27). The main entrance of the Saepta was probably along its N façade, since the arches of the *Aqua Virgo are said to have terminated in front of the Saepta (finiuntur in campo Martio secundum frontem Saeptorum: Frontin., Aq. 22.2; Tortorici). A now-lost fragment of the Severan Marble Plan suggests that an interior hall pierced with openings to the courtyard ran across the Saepta’s N end (Rodríguez Almeida, Forma pl. 27, frag. 36a); the short S end had no corresponding colonnade and its connection to the Diribitorium remains unknown (Rodríguez Almeida, Forma pl. 26, frags. 35 p, q, bb, gg, hh). The Saepta communicated with the Diribitorium on the S, and may also have offered access on the E to the Serapeum (Richardson 212). In the Imperial period, the function of the Saepta evolved by necessity to become a center for popular entertainment and relaxation (Statius, Silv. 4.6.2; Mart. 2.14.5-6, 2.57.1-2, 3.20.10-11, 11.1.12). Agrippa decorated the Saepta lavishly with marble and paintings (Dio Cass. 53.23.2); two celebrated sculpture groups, one of Olympus and Pan and another depicting Achilles with Chiron (Pliny, NH 36.29), were displayed there in a public picture and sculpture gallery (Tortorici). When not serving the idle crowds of early-Imperial Rome, the immense enclosure could house gladiatorial combats, including those of Agrippa’s funerary games (Suet., Aug. 43; Dio Cass. 55.8.5, 55.10.7; cf. E. Gatti for combats offered by Julio-Claudian emperors). After the Saepta burned in the conflagration of A.D. 80, it was rebuilt, presumably without a change in plan, by Domitian (and again by Hadrian: SHA, Had. 19.10), and frequently served as a market for luxury goods (Juv. 6.153; Mart. 9.59, 10.80; cf. Sen., Ira 2.8.1).