www.quondam.com/e26/2654.htm

Encyclopedia Ichnographica

Diribitorium

1/1

Diribitorium

The Diribitorium. Agrippa also began the erection of a building in which the votes cast by the people in the saepta could be counted (diribere = dis-hibere), and which was therefore called the Diribitorium. This building was finished by Augustus in 8 B.C., and was famous for the construction of the roof of its central hall, which rested on beams more than 100 feet long, without pillars or supports of any kind. For many years it was the widest roof of this sort in Rome, but it fell during Caligula's reign and could not be restored in the same form. III 80 A.D. the Diribitorium was burned, but it must have been rebuilt, for it is mentioned as existing in the third century.

It has usually been supposed that while the exact location of the Diribitorium was unknown, it was a separate building near the Saepta; but there is much to be said in support of a recent theory, according to which Diribitorium was the name applied to the second story of the Saepta. (Platner)

««««

»»»»