A curia in ancient Rome came to be known as any building designated or built specifically as a place of meeting by either the senate or any political organization. Originally the term referred to the comitia curiata, the thirty original ethnic subdivisions of "curia", or Roman people, who assembled into the curiat assembly within Comitium space near the Roman forum.
There have been a number of Curia houses built specifically for the senate, as well as other buildings of a similar nature. The most famous of these curiae, aside from the Curia Julia the only surviving Roman Senate building in the city is the Curia of the Theatre of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was murdered. After his death, the structure was burned by an angry mob and then converted into a latrine.