PRAEFECTURA URBANA
the general offices of the Praefectus urbi during
the empire, which consisted of at least three parts-the scrinia or
archives (Hist. Aug. Aur. 9), the secretarium or prefect's office, and the
tribunalia, where he rendered his decisions. A restoration is recorded
in the fourth century by the prefect Junius Valerius Bellicius (
CIL vi.
31959;
NS 1897, 60). The secretarium was called tellurense, which
indicates that the building stood in Tellure, or in vico Tellurensi, near
the temple of
TELLUS (q.v.). No trace of the prefecture remains, but
the epigraphical evidence points to a site just west of the thermae
Traianae on the Esquiline, within the area now bounded by the Vie di
S. Pietro in Vincoli, della Polveriera and dei Serpenti (
BC 1892, 19-37;
Mitt. 1893, 298-302;
RhM 1894, 629-630 NS 1922, 219; HJ 306-307;
cf. 329, n. 15). Adjacent to the praefectura was a porticus (
BC 1891, 342-358),
1 in which copies of the edicts preserved in the archives were set
up for inspection (cf.
PORTICUS THERMARUM TRAIANARUM).
