[Illustration: PLAN OF THE ROSTRA, AND TEMPLE-TOMB OF CÆSAR.]
We know from Dion Cassius that Cæsar encouraged the popular business
to be carried on at the lower end of the Forum, and that he turned the
steps of the Temple of Castor into a temporary rostra. On this
becoming popular he built a new rostra, which was called the plebeian
rostra or Rostra Julia. We learn from Suetonius that it was before the
Temple of Cæsar. Cicero, speaking from it against Mark Antony, bids
his audience look to the (_their_) left at the gilt equestrian statue
of Antony which stood before the Temple of Castor.
[Illustration: HADRIAN ADDRESSING THE PEOPLE FROM THE ROSTRA JULIA.]
This is one of the most interesting spots in the Forum. Cæsar built
the second rostra with its rear towards the Forum, represented by the
darker lines in the above plan. In front, towards the curved edge,
Antony spoke, Cæsar's body being on the level below. The body was
burnt and buried "in the Forum in that place visible from the old
monumental Regia of the Romans. On the spot was placed an altar _where
now_ is the Temple of Cæsar" (Appian, ii. 42). "The same men were
erecting a tomb in the Forum who had performed that irregular funeral"
(Cicero, "First Phil." ii.).
It was decorated with the rams of the captured ships of Antony and
Cleopatra. It was the custom to speak from the circular edge; but when
the Temple of Cæsar was built, it was erected close up to his rostra,
on the site where the people had previously stood, and so they had to
turn about and address the people from the flat edge. "As he was
seated on the rostra at the festival of Pan, Mark Antony placed upon
his brow a royal diadem" (Velleius Paterculus, ii. 56).