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Here I Stood: Tabularium (Rome)

davidl5012

Updated: Jul 2, 2024


The Roman Republic began traditionally in 509 B.C., and very little remains from that early period. In the Capitoline Museum one can see the bronze statue of the wolf that supposedly suckled the twins, Romulus and Remus. The images of the twins were supposedly destroyed by lightning in a storm. There is also the bronze statue of the boy removing a thorn from his foot and several busts of prominent and not so prominent Romans of the period.


As far as a monument is concerned, the public records office that contained the archives of Rome, the Tabularium, is probably the only extant representative of that early period. But the building was well-built, and situated at the foot of Capitol Hill. Today the city hall of Rome sits atop the structure with the Capitoline Museum flanking it on both sides.


All official government documents of Rome from its inception to the time when the city ceased to function as a political capital were filed here. In A.D. 410 Visigoths sacked the city of Rome and set fire to a great number of the capital city’s structures, including the Tabularium. The fire destroyed records, but the structure was so well constructed that it survived, empty but a silent testimony to the greatness and efficiency of Rome and its government.


It was only recently that the city government opened the Tabularium to visitors. One needs to buy an admission to the museum and then can go down to see what is possibly the oldest surviving structure in Rome. Yes, I walked through its empty halls and saw shelves that probably contained scrolls of Roman government documents through many centuries.


It was Justin Martyr who wrote in his Apology, a defense of Christianity dedicated to the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius around A.D. 150 that Pontius Pilate had filed an official report of his dealings with Jesus of Nazareth including the trial and the final verdict of execution. He instructed the emperor that if he had any doubts about the historicity of Christ and the events surrounding His death, he could consult Pilate’s report filed in the Tabularium. Suffice it to say, that it is quite unlikely that the report survived the 410 fire unless it was removed to Constantinople in 330, and many spurious accounts have appeared. These thoughts filled my mind when I stood in the Tabularium.



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