GRAECOSTASIS
a raised place at the edge of the comitium, which served
as a sort of tribunal for ambassadors from foreign states, especially
Greeks (Varro,
LL v. 155). It was near the curia (Cic. ad Q. Fr. ii. I. 3),
on the west of the rostra, and the relative position of these structures
is determined by the statement of Pliny (
NH vii. 212) that the accensus
of the consuls proclaimed the hour of noon when, from the curia, he saw
the sun between the rostra and Graecostasis-that is, in the south.
On the other hand, we are told that in 304 B.C. Cn. Flavius erected a
small bronze shrine (aedicula) to
CONCORDIA (q.v.) on the Graecostasis quae
tunc supra Comitium erat (Plin.
NH xxxiii. 19), and this 'aedes ' is also
spoken of as 'in area Volcani ' (
Liv. ix. 46)-a statement that may mean
that the Graecostasis had been moved or had ceased to exist at all in
Pliny's day. About 30 B.C. sacrifices were offered to Luna 'in Graecostasi' (Fast. Pinc., CIL i². p. 219), and for the years 137, 130, 124 B.C., it is
recorded that it rained blood or milk on the Graecostasis (Obseq. de prod.
24, 28, 31). The Graecostasis was therefore an open platform between
the comitium and the forum, on the site afterwards occupied by the
arch of Severus, and eastwards. Cf. JRS 1922, II, 25, where Van Deman
places it under and north of the rostra of Augustus. Hiilsen (HC. pl. v.)
places it conjecturally to the west of the Lapis Niger (TF 64), but the
pavement here is probably the pavement of the Sullan rostra vetera
(JRS cit. 22). Nothing is known of its history after the Augustan age,
nor is its exact purpose certain. Other explanations have been given,
but it was probably the place where foreign ambassadors awaited their
summons into the senate (cf.
Iustin. xliii. 5. 0 ; Mommsen,
Hist. i. 534;
Bull. Univ. Wisc. No. 99
(1904), 166-170;
BC 1900, 128-130; Thed. 137).
For a theory that its place was taken by the Graecostadium see DR
383-385.
