The Curia or Senate Chamber was frequent target of political unrest

Reconstruction of the Curia or Senate Chamber, originally uploaded by mharrsch.

The Curia was the meeting place of the Senate. The original Curia was built by the third king of Rome, Tullus Hostilius. It burnt down four times, first in 80 B.C. Diocletian built the current structure shortly after the devastating fire of 283 C.E. on the site of an earlier curia begun by Julius Caesar and completed by Octavianus (Augustus) in 29 B.C.E. The lower half of the building was once faced with marble, the upper half with stucco. The holes in the facade once supported the chalcidicum - a portico built by Augustus to house the senate's vast collection of records. The Curia could seat up to 200 senators.