TRIBUNAL AURELIUM
a tribunal, or platform, evidently named after some
Aurelius, in the forum, which is mentioned four times by Cicero in
connection with a levy of slaves in 58 B.C. (pro Sest. 34, in Pis. 11:
pro
tribunali Aurelii; de domo 54, post red. ad Quir. 13: in tribunali
Aurelii).
In two other passages Cicero speaks of gradus Aurelii, once in connection with the trial of C. Iunius in 74 B.C. (pro Clu. 93:
gradus illi
Aurelii tur novi quasi pro theatro illi iudicio aedificati videbantur;
quos ubi accusator concitatis hominibus complerat, non modo dicendi
ab reo, sed ne surgendi quidem potestas erat), and again in 59 B.C. (pro
Flacc. 66:
hoc nimirum est illud quod non longe a gradibus Aurelii
haec causa dicitur). These gradus, being new (novi), were probably
built by M. Aurelius Cotta, consul in that year (74), and as they were
occupied by those in attendance upon the jury trials, gradus and tribunal
probably belonged together. Either the terms were used without
distinction, or the gradus led up to the tribunal. These tribunalia were
usually temporary structures of wood (cf. Plut. Caes. 68; Suet. Caes.
84; App.
BC ii. 148): this one, or at least the gradus, was certainly of
stone. There is no indication of its site, and since it is not mentioned
after the time of Cicero, it was probably removed during the changes
carried out by Caesar and Augustus (
Jord. i. 2, 405; Thedenat, 148;
RE ii. 2430; Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, 1904, 178-182,
where, however, the identification of the gradus Aurelii and the so-called
hemicycle of the rostra is erroneous).
