The diribitorium was a public

voting Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representative ...

hall situated on the

campus Martius The Campus Martius (Latin for 'Field of Mars'; Italian: ''Campo Marzio'') was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome. The IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which covers ...

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. In this building, the votes cast by the people were counted by ''diribitores'' (

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

officials). Construction of the building was started by Marcus Agrippa but finished by

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

in 7 BC. "Its roof had the widest span of any building erected in Rome before 230 A.D., and was supported by beams of larch one hundred feet long and one and a half feet thick." According to Cassius Dio, the diribitorium was among a number of public buildings that were destroyed by fire in 80 AD, and subsequently rebuilt by

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Titus Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September AD 81) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, becoming the first Roman emperor ever to succeed h ...

.Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'
LXVI.24
/ref>

Christian Hülsen Christian Karl Friedrich Hülsen (born in Charlottenburg, 29 November 1858; died in Florence, Italy, on 19 January 1935) was a German architectural historian of the classical era who later changed to studying the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. ...

proposed a theory that the diribitorium was a second story atop the Saepta.

References

External links

Description of the diribitorium at Lacus Curtius
7 BC Buildings and structures completed in the 1st century BC Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Rome {{AncientRome-stub

See also

References

External links