PRAECO: [Web : Vesti] A Herculean effort

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

[Web : Vesti] A Herculean effort

After nearly 20 years, and €16m spent on restoration, an archaeological site dedicated to Hercules is set to open to the public

TIVOLI/ROME. On 23 June, the Sanctuary of Hercules in Tivoli, Italy will open to the public for the first time following years of restoration work and significant investment.
Built at the end of the second century AD as a place of worship in honour of Hercules the Victor, the vast complex has had a tumultuous history. After a period of abandonment, from the 18th century onward it became the site of various industrial ventures including a gunpowder factory, a paper-mill and Italy’s first hydroelectric power plant.
Since 1983, around €11 million has been spent on excavating and renovating the site and in 2008 a further €5 million was allocated to the Department of Archaeological Heritage, Lazio for the regeneration project which is now nearing its completion.
A museum has been constructed to house important archaeological finds from the site, and the restored 700-seat open air theatre will present a calendar of events throughout the summer. In addition to its rich Roman heritage, the new centre will also embrace its role in the history of Italian civil engineering. Proposals have been invited on how to best redevelop the paper mill and the winning submission will be announced during the opening.

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PRAECONES

PRAECOʹNES, criers, were employed for various purposes:

1. In sales by auction, they frequently advertised the time, place, and conditions of sale: they seem also to have acted the part of the modern auctioneer, so far as calling out the biddings and amusing the company, though the property was knocked down by the magister auctionis (Hor. Ars Poet. 419; Cic. ad Att. XII.40, de Off. II.23). [Auctio.]

2. In all public assemblies they ordered silence (Liv. III.47; Plaut. Poen. prol. 11).

3. In the comitia they called the centuries one by one to give their votes, pronounced the vote of each century, and called out the names of those who were elected (Cic. c. Verr. V.15, pro Mil. 35). They also recited the laws that were to be passed.

4. In trials, they summoned the accuser and the accused, the plaintiff and defendant (Suet. Tib. 11).

5. In the public games, they invited the people to attend, and proclaimed the victors (Cic. ad Fam. V.12).

6. In solemn funerals they also invited people to attend by a certain form; hence these funerals were called Funera Indictiva (Festus, s.v. Quirites; Suet. Jul. 84).

7. When things were lost, they cried them and searched for them (Plaut. Merc. III.4.78; Petron. 57).

8. In the infliction of capital punishment, they sometimes conveyed the commands of the magistrates to the lictors (Liv. XXVI.15).

Their office, called praeconium, appears to have been regarded as rather disreputable: in the time of Cicero a law was passed preventing all persons who had been praecones from becoming decuriones in the municipia (Cic. ad Fam. VI.18). Under the early emperors, however, it became very profitable (Juv. III.157, VII.6; Martial, V.56.11, VI.8.5), which was no doubt partly owing to the bribes which they received from the suitors, &c.

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