Regia in the Roman Forum

The Regia is one of the oldest buildings at the Roman Forum. It was originally the residence of the kings of Rome or at least their main headquarters, and later the office of the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Roman religion. It occupied a triangular patch of terrain between the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Divus Julius and Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. According to ancient tradition it was built by the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius who also build the Temple of Vesta and the Domus Publica. When Caesar became pontifex maximus he exercised his duties from the Regia. Image File history File links Regia. ... Image File history File links Regia. ... The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum, although the Romans referred to it more often as the Forum Magnum or just the Forum) was the central area around which ancient Rome developed, in which commerce, business, prostitution, cult and the administration of justice took place. ... For the son of Napoleon I of France, styled the King of Rome, see Napoleon II of France. ... Alternate meanings: see Pontifex (disambiguation) In Ancient Rome, the Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the collegium of the Pontifices, the most august position in Roman religion, open only to a patrician, until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post. ... Vesta may refer to: The goddess Vesta in Roman mythology equivalent to Greek Hestia The asteroid 4 Vesta, named for the Roman deity. ... Temple of Caesar (Aedes Divus Iulius) The Temple of Caesar (Aedes Divus Iulius or Templum Divi Iuli) was begun by Augustus in 42 BC after the senate deified Julius Caesar after his death. ... Sestertius of Antoninus Pius, with the personification of Italia on reverse. ... Annia Galeria Faustina, the Elder, (died c. ... Numa Pompilius (April 21, 753 BC - 674 BC) succeeded Romulus as the second King of Rome. ... Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman mythology, analogous to Hestia in Greek mythology. ... A bust of Julius Caesar. ...

The building had an irregularly formed enclosed courtyard that was paved in tufa with a wooden portico. The interior was divided into three rooms with entrance from the courtyard into the middle room. The West Room was the shrine of Mars, sacrarium Martis, in which the ancilia (shields) of Mars were stored. Here, too, stood the lances that were consecrated to Mars, the hastae Martiae. If these lances would ever start vibrating something terrible would happen. They are also said to have vibrated in the night of 14 March 44 BC. Caesar, High Priest at the time, in spite of the vibrating lances left the Regia to be present at the meeting of the Senate. It would be his last. He was brutally killed by Brutus and Cassius. The East Room contained a sanctuary of Ops Consiva, so sacred that only the pontifex maximus and the Vestal Virgins were allowed to enter it. Tufa is the name for an unusual geological formation. ... Mars was the Roman god of war, the son of Juno and a magical flower (or Jupiter). ... The term lance has become a catchall for a variety of different pole weapons based on the spear. ... The Roman Senate (Latin, Senatus) was a deliberative body which was important in the government of both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. ... Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (died 43 BC) was a Roman politician and general of the 1st century BC, one of Julius Caesars assassins. ... Gaius Cassius Longinus (Before 85 BC - October, 42 BC) was a Roman senator and the prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius Caesar. ... A vestal Virgin, engraving by Sir Frederick Leighton, ca 1890: Leightons artistic sense has won over his passion for historical accuracy in showing the veil over the Vestals head at sacrifices, the suffibulum, as translucent, instead of fine white wool. ...

The archives of the pontifices were kept here, the formulas of all kinds of prayers, vows, sacrifices, etc., the state calendar of sacred days, the Annales- the record of events of each year for public reference- and the laws relating to marriage, death, wills, etc.

The Regia was the place of assembly of the College of Pontiffs and at times of the Fratres Arvales. In ancient Rome, the College of Pontiffs was a body whose members were the highest-ranking priests of the polytheistic state religion. ... The Fratres Arvales were an ancient order of priests, dated back to the time of Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, that still persisted to the imperial period. ...

Originally the Regia, the Temple of Vesta with the associated House of the Vestal Virgins, and the Domus Publica all formed a single religious and political complex. This relationship probably stems from the time when the Vestal Virgins were the king's daughters.

The Regia was burned and restored in 148 B.C. (for a possible burning by the Gauls in 390 B.C., see Mem. Am. Acad. ii.59-60); and again in 36 B.C., when the restoration was carried out in marble by Domitius Calvinus, the conqueror of Spain on the regal foundation. The curious trapezoidal shape was an attempt to maintain the building's orientation to the points of the compass and still fit behind the Temple of Caesar, still under construction. Domitius Calvinus was a Roman general under the command of Julius Caesar during the Roman Republican Civil Wars. ...

The Regia was physically cut off from the main square of the forum when the Temple of Caesar was built. The importance of the Regia was largely symbolic in the imperial period, and was transferred into a private residence in the seventh or eight century.

External link

• The Regia