Atrium Libertatis

About

The Atrium Libertatis (English: House of Freedom) was a multipurpose administrative structure in ancient Rome that primarily served as the seat of the censors' archive. It was located on the saddle that connected the Capitolium to the Quirinal Hill, a short distance from the Roman Forum. Livy reports that the edifice already existed in 212 BC, when some hostages were kept there, and that it was built again by the censors of 194 BC.

A second complete reconstruction was promoted by Gaius Asinius Pollio starting from 39 BC, with the spoils gained from his victory over the Illyrians, perhaps continuing the project, already conceived by Caesar, to complete the Forum dedicated to himself and inaugurated in the space between the saddle where the Atrium Libertatis and the Roman Forum stood just a few years earlier. The monument was to be completed by 28 BC. It was a large complex, which included the censors' archive, with the lists of citizens and the bronze tables with the maps of the ager publicus, two libraries and maybe a basilica (Basilica Asinia).

The sources recall the presence, inside the complex, of numerous works of art by famous sculptors, some of Neo-Attic taste, others in the more...