The pomerium (or pomoerium) was the sacred boundary of the city of Rome. In legal terms, Rome existed only within the pomerium; everything beyond it was simply land belonging to Rome. Tradition maintained that it was inaugurated by Servius Tullius, but it did not follow the line of the Servian walls, and it is unlikely that he actually did establish the sacred boundary, which remained unchanged until the dictatorate of Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Several white cippi stones commissioned by Claudius have been found in situ and several have been found away from their original location. These stones mark the boundaries and relative dimensions of the pomerium extension by Claudius. This extension is recorded in Tacitus. Aulus Gellius also reports extensions by Caesar Augustus, Nero, and Trajan, but no other written or archaeological evidence supports this. City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Left-Wing Democrats) Area  - City Proper  1285 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2. ... The word tradition, comes from the Latin word traditio which means to hand down or to hand over. ... Servius Tullius was the sixth legendary king of ancient Rome, and the second king of the Etruscan dynasty. ... Large section of the Servian Wall visible next to the railway station of Termini. ... Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (Latin: L·CORNELIVS·L·F·P·N·SVLLA·FELIX) ¹ (ca. ... A statue of Emperor Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (August 1, 10 BC – October 13, 54), previously Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, was the fourth Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, 41 to his death in 54. ... A statue of Emperor Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (August 1, 10 BC – October 13, 54), previously Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, was the fourth Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, 41 to his death in 54. ... Gaius Cornelius Tacitus Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (c. ... Aulus Gellius (c. ... The famous statue of Octavian at the Prima Porta Caesar Augustus (Latin:IMP·CAESAR·DIVI·F·AVGVSTVS) ¹ (23 September 63 BC–19 August AD 14), known to modern historians as Octavian for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, is considered the first and one of the most... A statue of Nero Nero Claudius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus (December 15, 37 AD–June 9, 68 AD), born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (50–54). ... Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus (September 18, 53 – August 9, 117), Roman Emperor (98-117), commonly called Trajan, was the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Roman Empire. ...

The pomerium was not a walled area (unlike the Chinese Forbidden City), but rather a legally and religiously defined one marked by cippus: It encompassed neither the entire metropolitan area nor even all the proverbial Seven Hills (the Palatine Hill was within the pomerium, but the Capitoline and Aventine Hills were not). The Curia Hostilia and the well of the Comitia in the Forum Romanum, two extremely important locations in the government of the city-state and its empire, were located within the pomerium. The temple of Bellona was beyond the pomerium. 17th century aviaries on the hill, built by Rainaldi for Odoardo Cardinal Farnese: once wirework cages surmounted them. ... Piazza del Campidoglio, on the top of Capitoline Hill, with the façade of Palazzo Senatorio. ... The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills that ancient Rome was built on. ... The Curia Hostilia (Lat. ... The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) was a central area of ancient Rome in which commerce, business, trading and the administration of justice took place. ... A city-state is a region controlled exclusively by a city. ... In Greek mythology, Enyo (horror) was an ancient goddess known by the epithet Waster of Cities and frequently depicted as being covered in blood and carrying weapons of war. ...

• The magistrates who held imperium did not have full power inside pomerium. They could have a citizen beaten, but not sentenced to death. This was symbolised by removing the axes from the fasces carried by the magistrate's lictors.

• Religious and political constraints forbade any anointed sovereign from entering the pomerium. As a result, visits of state were somewhat awkward; Cleopatra, for example, never actually entered the city of Rome when she came to visit Julius Caesar.

• Furthermore, (provincial) promagistrates and generals were forbidden from passing beyond it, and resigned their imperium immediately upon crossing it (as it were the superlative form of the ban on armies entering Italy). As a result, a general waiting to celebrate a triumph with his victorious troops was required to wait outside the pomerium until his triumph. The Comitia Centuriata, one of the Roman assemblies, consisting of centuriae (voting units, but originally military batallions within the legions), was required to meet on the Campus Martius outside the pomerium.

Pompey's Theater, where Julius Caesar was murdered, was also outside the pomerium and included a Senate chamber where the Senate could meet with the attendance of individual senators who were forbidden to cross the pomerium and thus would not have been able to meet in the Curia Hostilia. Magistratus ordinarii (ordinary magistrates) and Magistrarus extraordinarii (extraordinary magistrates) were two categories of officials who held political, military, and, in some cases, religious power in the Roman Republic. ... Imperium can, in a broad sense, be translated as power. ... Roman fasces. ... The lictor, derived from the Latin ligare (to bind), was a member of a special class of Roman civil servant, with special tasks of attending magistrates of the Roman Republic and Empire who held imperium. ... Egyptian statue of Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII Philopator (January 69 BC – August 12, 30 BC) was queen of ancient Egypt, the last member of the Ptolemaic dynasty and hence the last Hellenistic ruler of Egypt. ... A bust of Julius Caesar. ... A promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a magistrate, but without holding a magisterial office. ... Imperium can, in a broad sense, be translated as power. ... The Roman Republic (Latin: Res Publica Romanorum) vested formal governmental powers in four separate peoples assemblies — the Comitia Curiata, the Comitia Centuriata, the Comitia Tributa, and the Concilium Plebis. ... Centuria (Latin plural Centuriae) is a Latin substantive rooting in centum a hundred, denoting units consisting of (originally, approximatively) a 100 men. ... The Campus Martius, or Field of Mars, was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about 2 km² (600 acres) in extent. ... Pompeys Theater remains in Largo di Torre Argentina. ... The Curia Hostilia (Lat. ...

Weapons were also banned inside the pomerium for religious and traditional reasons. Praetorian guards were allowed in only in civilian dress (toga), and were then called collectively cohors togata. But it was possible to sneak in daggers (the proverbial weapon for political violence, see sicarius). Since Julius Caesar's assassination occurred outside this boundary, the senatorial conspirators could not be charged with 'blasphemy' for carrying weapons inside the 'sacred' city. Sicarius is a word derived from latin used in a number of contexts: A sicarius was the perpetrator of a type of violent crime under Roman law. ...

External links

• Samuel Ball Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome: Pomerium
• Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities: Pomoerium