ABSTRACT
Drawing on an understanding of sound as an integral functional aspect of ancient spaces, this chapter analyses reconstructed scenarios of public speech and assembly during the Late Republic on the Forum Romanum. Through the use of auralizations, the comprehensibility of a speech delivered to the crowd from the three main speaker’s platforms can be simulated: from the Republican Rostra towards the Comitium, from the Rostra towards the Forum square, and from the Temple of Castor. When combined with reconstructions of the visibility of the speaker from the crowd, it can be determined how well each platform facilitated political communication. In the Late Republic the successive shifts in location can be shown to be connected to an increase in their effectiveness for reaching ever-larger audiences.
