TABULA VALERIA
* a name used twice by Cicero (ad
Fam. xiv. 2. 2:
nam
ad me P. Valerius, homo officiosus, scripsit, id quod ego maximo cum
fletu legi, quem ad modum a Vestae ad tabulam Valeriam ducta esses
(Terentia); in Vat. 21: cum eum (Bibulum) tu consulem in vincula duceres
et a tabula Valeria collegae tui mitti iuberent), where it indicates a
definite spot in the forum. Three explanations of this term have been
given:
(I) that it means the bank of Valerius, to which Terentia had
been forced by Clodius to go in order to make some declaration about
her husband's estate (Tyrrell and Purser, Correspondence of
Cicero
i. 387). This interpretation is supported by a similar meaning, bank of
Sestius, given to tabula Sestia in Cicero, pro Quinct. 25:
pueros circum
amicos dimittit, ipse suos necessarios ab atriis Liciniis et a faucibus
macelli corrogat, ut ad tabulam Sextiam sibi adsint hora secunda postridie.
(2) that it was a painting by Q. Fabius Pictor on the wall of the
Curia Hostilia, which represented the victory of M. Valerius Messalla
over Hiero and the Carthaginians in 264 B.C. (
Plin. xxxv. 22:
dignatio
autem praecipua Romae increvit, ut existimo, a M'. Val. Maximo Messalla,
qui princeps tabulam pictam 1 proelii quo Carthaginienses et Hieronem in
Sicilia vicerat proposuit in latere curiae Hostiliae anno ab urbe condita
CCCCLXXXX). This is the explanation of the scholiast on the passage from
the speech against Vatinius:
quod vero ad tabulam Valeriam pertinere
videatur, loci nomen sic ferebatur, quemadmodum ad tabulam Sestiam,
cuius meminit pro Quinctio, ita et ad tabulam Valeriam dicebatur, ubi
Valerius Maximus tabulam rerum ab se in Gallia prospere gestarum
proposuerat ostentui vulgo, and is doubtless drawn from Pliny. Taking
this statement of a scholiast as a basis, Manutius conjectured that there
was a sort of tribunes' court 'ad tabulam Valeriam,' to which Terentia
was forced to go, presumably to answer for Cicero's property in some way,
and cited the passage from his speech in Vat. as a parallel, for here tabula
Valeria collegae tui may mean that this was an assembling place for the
tribunes, and that those who were gathered there prevented Vatinius
from casting Bibulus into prison. It is also known that the subsellia
tribunorum were near the basilica Porcia and, therefore, the curia (Suet.
Caes. 78; cf. Plut. Cato min. 5; Cic. pro Sest. 124). This is the view
that has been generally accepted (
Jord. i. 2. 330-331;
Gilb. iii. 165;
Mitt. 1893, 93;
AJP 1898, 406-412).
(3) tabula Valeria was a bronze tablet on which were inscribed the
famous Valerio-Horatian laws, which concerned especially the office and
functions of the tribunes. This was set up in the forum, near the subsellia
tribunorum, in order that the tribunes might consult its provisions
whenever necessary, and hence it came to be used as an indication of
locality. In the same way tabula Sestia was a tablet containing a copy
of the Licinio-Sestian laws, which probably stood also at the west end
of the forum (O'Connor,
CP 1908, 278-284).
The first of these explanations must be rejected; of the other two, the
latter seems a little more probable.