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The Campus Martius Casa of M. Fabius Furius

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The Saepta

The traditional voting ground of the Roman people

Welcome, citizens. Is everyone here? Gather around, and we shall begin our tour. I am Aulus Pompius Galba, clerk in the office of the censors. The Saepta has been the voting ground for the comitia centuriata of the Roman people since ancient times. Our early records say that when the comitia was formed and the Romans on the Palatine expanded to the Capitoline Hill, voting was held in the Forum between the two hills. In those times, the Forum was often flooded, so the voting was moved to the Campus Martius. Sentinels on the Arx, there above us, would keep watch to warn of any surprise attack when the people were assembled here outside the city. As you look around, you can see the walls surrounding the open rectangle of the Saepta. These walls actually give us the name, for saepio means to enclose. Yes, young man? Why is it also called the sheepfold? The Ovile is a name people sometimes use to refer to the Saepta. When voting is held here, rope lines are laid out for the voters to pass through. As each of the curiae, tribes, or centuriae of the different assemblies are called to vote, the members pass through the ropes to cast their votes into the cistae at the ends of each aisle. Thus, some people waggishly see a similarity to a sheepfold. Hmmph. Now, to continue. The Saepta is an inaugurated templum. The walls you see form a rectangle 1000 by 200 feet* laid out in travertine stone. There are eight rows of piers across the enclosure. The first row you see there, decorated with a balustrade. The length of the whole enclosure allows for up to eighty-two lateral sections, which accommodates the number of centuries voting in the comitia centuriata. Now, I will give you some time to look around before we proceed to the Diribitorium.

Voting Commemoratives A denarius issued at Rome, c. 113-112 BC, by the moneyer P. Licinius Nerva shows the voting process in the Comitium. The voter on the left is given a tablet by the attendant (center). The voter on the right is placing his tablet in the cista (voting urn). Credits: Barbara McManus (2003) from Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (National Museums, Rome). Another coin issued c. 63 BC at the mint of Rome by the moneyer L. Cassius Longinus shows a (male) citizen dropping a voting tablet into the cista. The “V” mark stands for Vti rogas (or, as you ask) – a positive vote. A negative vote would be shown by an “A” for antiquo. This coin commemorates an ancestor of Longinus who passed the Lex Cassia Tabellaria, a law that changed the voting method to secret balloting. Credits: M. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, No. 413.

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* i.e., Roman feet – 400 x 60 meters

Further Reading:
Basic facts are provided in the Saepta and Ovile entries from A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby), London: Oxford University Press (1929), from Bill Thayer’s Lacus Curtius website.

A brief note on the early voting places of Rome is found in John T. Cullen, A Walk in Ancient Rome, New York: ibooks (2005), p. 77. A good fictional description of the voting process appears in Steven Saylor, Catilina’s Riddle, New York: St. Martin’s Paperbacks (1993), Chapter 21.

Image Sources:
Property page background from Eos Development. Table background created by Bari Augustus.
Nerva coin and drawing from the VRoma Project. Longinus coin from A Mathematical Exploration of Apportionment Procedures around the World.

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