ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the spatial aspects of Rome’s most obviously political activity: voting on laws. Amy Russell argued that the exclusively ‘political’ Forum Romanum was a creation of the late Republic. Countering Mouritsen’s argument that few Roman citizens participated in politics, it argues that voting on laws was an important and popular activity, which could draw large crowds into the Forum. These crowds needed to move around; unlike the passive contio, the voting comitia was a procedure which required movement. The changes to procedure we see in the later second century – the use of the Temple of Castor, the narrowing of the voting gangways (pontes), and the introduction of the secret ballot – point to the need to accommodate more voters in the Forum and to ensure the integrity of their votes. The chapter also argues that it may have been placed in front of the Temple tribunal rather than on it. Overall, voting was a major contributor to crowding out non-political uses of the Forum space.
