Public administration buildings (VIII,2,6-10 and 3,1/32/33)
Remodeled in opus latericium after the earthquake in 62 AD, these buildings were not built according to a coordinated plan: the two to the east are from the same period (before 80 BC); the other is more recent, and still has its marble floor. These are rectangular rooms, with central niches, whose function is the subject of some debate: the eastern hall may have been the meeting room for the administrators, the central hall the tabularium (legal archive), the other, the hall of the decurions. Next, opening onto via dell’Abbondanza, is the Comitium, an open-air hall where the populus was summoned to exercise their political-administrative rights. Completed before 89 BC, it has a tribunal on the south side, flanked by niches with statues: it held the administrators, who presided over the assemblies and supervised the voting procedures.
