ROSTRA ("beaks"), in Roman antiquities, the orators' plat form which stood in Rome between the Comitium and the Forum, opposite the Curia. In 338 B.C. it was decorated by Gaius Maenius with the prows of ships captured from the people of Antium. From that time it was called Rostra, having previously been known as temp/um (literally "consecrated place"), since it had been consecrated by the augurs. Here were exhibited the statues of famous Romans, and State documents and memorials (the laws of the Twelve Tables, etc.). Caesar had it pulled down, intending that it should be rebuilt on the west side of the Forum, but it was left for Augustus to carry out his plan. The use of the term Rostra V etera by classical authors makes it doubtful whether the old platform was entirely demolished, unless the name was simply transferred to the new rostra of Augustus to distinguish it from the Rostra Julia. This consisted of a rectangular plat form, 78 ft. long, I I ft. above the level of the Forum, reached by steps from the back ; in front there was a marble balustrade with an opening in the centre where the speaker stood. In the existing remains, the holes in which the beaks of the ships were fastened are visible. See ROME: Archaeology.
ments of the music. But the sweetness and clarity of such melo dies as "Mi rivedrai, ti rivedro" and "Di tanti palpiti," conquered Venice. Italians would sing "Mi rivedrai" in the law courts until called upon by the judge to desist. Rossini continued to write operas for Venice and Milan during the next few years, but without repeating the success of Tancredi.
In 1815 he retired to Bologna, where Barbaja, the impresario of the Naples theatre, engaged him as musical director of the Teatro San Carlo and the Teatro Del Fondo at Naples, on the understanding that he compose for each of them one opera a year. His payment was to be 200 ducats (about f35 or $175) per
month; he was also to receive a share in the gaming-tables, also owned by Barbaja, amounting to about i,000 ducats (f or $875) per annum. General enthusiasm greeted the court per formance of his Elisabetta regina d' Inghilterra, in which Isabella Colbran, whom Rossini afterwards married, took a leading part. The opera was the first in which Rossini wrote the ornaments of the airs instead of leaving them to the fancy of the singers, and also the first in which the recitativo secco was replaced by a re citative accompanied by a quartet of strings. In Almaviva (Rome, 1816) the libretto, a version of Beaumarchais' Barbier de Seville by Sterbini, was the same as that already used by Paisiello in his Barbiere, an opera which had enjoyed European popularity for more than a quarter of a century. But Rossini had created such a masterpiece of musical comedy that the title of Il Barbiere di Siviglia passed inevitably to his opera.
Between 1815 and 1823 Rossini produced twenty operas. Of these Otello formed the climax, contrasting interestingly with the treatment of the same subject at a similar point of artistic development by Verdi. In deference to the taste of the day the story was made to end happily! The opera Cenerentola (1817) is to be ranked with the Barbiere, as a masterpiece in comedy. Mose in Egitto was produced at Naples in 1818. In 1821, Rossini married Isabella Colbran. In 1822 he directed his Cenerentola in Vienna, where Zelmira was also performed. After this he re turned to Bologna; but an invitation from Prince Metternich to "assist in the general re-establishment of harmony" brought him to Verona at the opening of the Congress on Oct. 20, 1822. Here he made friends with Chateaubriand and Madame de Lieven.