Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Roman antiquity, an open space prescribed to be left free from buildings within and without the walls of a town, marked off by stone pillars, and consecrated by a religious ceremony.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin pōmoerium, pōmērium ("the religious boundary of a city"), which word being either formed as post ("behind") + moerus, mūrus ("wall") + -ium (neuter form of -ius, adjectival suffix) or derived from Etruscan.

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Examples

  • Cross the pomerium into Rome, and you lose your triumph!

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • When Agrippa returned from two years in Further Gaul covered in glory, he and the two legions he had brought with him camped on the Campus Martius outside the pomerium; the Senate had voted him a triumph, which meant he was religiously forbidden to enter Rome herself.

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • When it discusses war, the Senate must meet outside the pomerium.

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • Cross the pomerium into Rome, and you lose your triumph!

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • When it discusses war, the Senate must meet outside the pomerium.

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • When Agrippa returned from two years in Further Gaul covered in glory, he and the two legions he had brought with him camped on the Campus Martius outside the pomerium; the Senate had voted him a triumph, which meant he was religiously forbidden to enter Rome herself.

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • Religiously, Rome herself existed only within the pomerium; all outside it was Roman territory.

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • Religiously, Rome herself existed only within the pomerium; all outside it was Roman territory.

    Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

  • But the crowd which thronged the Circus Flaminius (it had been decided that to bring her body inside the pomerium would be imprudent, given her unclean status) appreciated so much luster less than they did the sight of Dalmatica's three-year-old twins, Faustus and Fausta, clad in black and carried by a black-festooned female giant from Further Gaul.

    Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993

  • So he stepped across the pomerium without a qualm, and proceeded to give the city back some semblance of government.

    Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993

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