Roman Senate House
The Senate of the city of Rome first began meeting about 500 BC, with the beginning of the Roman Republic. The richest men in Rome were elected to serve in the Senate (These men prevented women from being in the Senate). The first Senate house was, according to Roman historians, built before there even was a senate, by one of the kings of Rome, Tullius Hostilius. It was in the Roman Forum, near some old sacred places where people felt close to powerful gods.
These students are standing on the old sacred places in front of the Senate building
This first Senate building had to be torn down to make room for the entrance to Julius Caesar's new forum, and so Julius Caesar began a new one. After he was killed, in 29 BC his nephew Augustus dedicated it to Julius Caesar's memory.
When Julius Caesar's Senate building was destroyed by a fire in the late 200's AD, the emperor Diocletian had a new Senate house built in the latest architectural style. This is the Senate house that is still standing today. It is still in the same place, in the Roman forum.
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(inside the Senate House) |
The Senate house Diocletian had built is all made of brick, although when it was new it would have had a coating of marble and stucco all over it. The marble floor is still there to give you an idea.
The colored marble used in this floor came from many different parts of the Roman Empire, to show that the Senate controlled so many different places and was very powerful. The reddish-purple stone is porphyry (POUR-fir-ee) from Egypt, and the yellow marble is from Nubia, south of Egypt (modern Ethiopia). The green marble (serpentine) is from Asia Minor (modern Turkey).
The Senate house also had great big bronze doors on it. (Today those doors have been moved to a church in Rome, but they're still the same doors).
The Senate met in this building for another 300 years after it was built, but with Roman government moved to Constantinople the Senate gradually stopped meeting (the last recorded meeting was in 580 AD). The Senate house is still in pretty good shape today, with a roof on it, because, like the Pantheon, the emperor Phocas gave it to the Popes to turn into a Christian church in the early 600's AD and the Popes took good care of it.
To find out more about the Roman Senate House, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
The Colosseum & the Roman Forum, by Martyn Whittock (2002). For kids.
The Roman Forum, by Michael Grant (1970). Out of date, but Michael Grant is an entertaining writer with a simple style which teenagers may appreciate.
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