Town criers

[Marcus Mummius]

Salvete,

Does anyone know if the romans had something like town criers to spread news?

Is anything known about them? How would they have been dressed?

A city here in Belgium would like to dress their folkloristic town crier in a Roman outfit to illustrate the rich roman past of their city. They want something authentic.

Any answers and suggestions would be highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Valete,
Jef

[Salvianus]

I believe a praeco was a civilian announcer of that type, Bill Thayer's details are at:

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/R ... cones.html

They sound lowly at best, so I would plead with them to avoid a completely innapropriate toga and recommend for men a loose unbelted T-shaped tunic to well below the knee, such as tradespeople are shown wearing, with flat leather shoes and perhaps wax tablets rather than scrolls.

Used by Jerome in 1 Kings:

{22:36} et præco insonuit in universo exercitu antequam sol occumberet dicens unusquisque revertatur in civitatem et in terram suam
{22:36} And a herald proclaimed throughout the entire army, before the setting of the sun, saying: “Let each one return to his own city, and to his own land.”

and in 2 Peter{2:5} :
iustitiæ præconem custodivit
Noah, the herald of justice

In the Acts, he seems to favour 'annunciator' and derivatives.

Hope that helps,

Ste

[Marcus Mummius]

Thanks Ste, helps a lot!

[Epictetus]

Does anyone know if the Acta Diurna were ever read out loud, or were they just displayed to be read by passerbys?

[D B Campbell]

Does anyone know if the Acta Diurna were ever read out loud, or were they just displayed to be read by passerbys?

I know that the TV drama Rome had a "town crier" figure, but I get the impression that the acta diurna were simply posted up so that, if you were interested (and literate), you could make your own copy.

[Justin of the New Yorkii]

If some noteworthy news item happened like a battle or a public official's death, they would write it down and nail it to a tree where three roads intersected, which is where we get the English "Trivia."