Roman Forum

This page refers to the main forum in the centre of Rome. See Imperial forums or Other forums in Rome (below) for other forums in Rome, and specific city articles for forums in other Roman provincial cities. See also Forum (Roman) for general article on the forum building type.

The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum, although the Romans called it more often the Forum Magnum or just the Forum) was the central area around which ancient Rome developed, in which commerce, business, prostitution, cult and the administration of justice took place. Here the communal hearth was located. Sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the surrounding hills was already raising the level of the forum in early Republican times. Originally it had been marshy ground, which was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima. Its final travertine paving, still to be seen, dates from the reign of Augustus.

Structures within the Forum

It is now famous for the remains, which eloquently show the use of urban spaces during the Roman Age. The Roman Forum includes the following major monuments, buildings and other ancient ruins:

Temples
Basilicas
Arches
Rostra, from where politicians made their speeches to the Roman citizens.
Curia Hostilia, the site of the Roman Senate.
Tabularium
Umbilicus Urbi
Shrine of Venus Cloacina

A processional way, the Via Sacra, crosses it linking it with the Colosseum. By the end of the Empire, it lost its everyday use remaining as a sacred place.

The last monument built inside the Forum is the Column of Phocas.

Excavation and preservation

An anonymous 8th century traveler from Einsiedeln (now in Germany) reported that the Forum was already falling apart during in his time. During the Middle Ages, though the memory of the Forum Romanum persisted, its monuments were for the most part buried under debris, and its location was designated the "Campo Vaccino" or "cattle field," located between the Capitoline Hill and the Colosseum. The return of Pope Urban V from Avignon in 1367 led to an increased interest in ancient monuments, partly for their moral lesson and partly as a quarry for new buildings being undertaken in Rome after a long lapse. Artists from the late 15th century drew the ruins in the Forum, antiquaries copied inscriptions from the 16th century, and a tentative excavation was begun in the late 18th century.

A cardinal took measures to drain it again and built the Alessandrine neighborhood over it. But the excavation by Carlo Fea, who began clearing the debris from the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1803, and archaeologists under the Napoleonic regime marked the beginning of clearing the Forum, which was only fully excavated in the early 20th century.

In its current state, remains from several centuries are shown together, due to the Roman practice of building over earlier ruins.

Other forums in Rome

See also Category:Forums of Rome

Other fora existed in other areas of the city; remains of most of them, sometimes substantial, are extant.

The most important of these are a number of large imperial fora forming a complex with the Forum Romanum: the Forum Iulium, Forum Augustum, the Forum Transitorium (also: Forum Nervae), and Trajan's Forum. The planners of the Mussolini era removed most of the Medieval and Baroque strata and built the Via dei Fori Imperiali road between the Imperial Fora and the Forum.
The Forum Boarium was dedicated to the commerce of cattle and was between the Palatine Hill and the river Tiber.
The Forum Holitorium was dedicated to the commerce of herbs and vegetables, between the Capitoline Hill and the Servian walls.
The Forum Piscarium was dedicated to the commerce of fish, between the Capitoline hill and the Tiber, in the area of the current Roman Ghetto.
The Forum Suarium was dedicated to the commerce of pork, near the barracks of the cohortes urbanae in the northern part of the campus Martius.
The Forum Vinarium was dedicated to the commerce of wine, in the area now of the "quartiere" Testaccio, between Aventine Hill and the Tiber.
Other markets were known, but not correctly identifiable because of either lack of clear information or plurality of sites. Among these, the Forum cuppedinis, for generic commerce of many kinds of goods.

External links

Comprehensive sites

"The Digital Forum", 3D reconstructions of the Roman Forum in ca. 400
Christian Hülsen: The Roman Forum (at LacusCurtius; Hülsen was one of the principal excavators of the Forum)

Primarily visual

Primarily text

Forum Romanum (at LacusCurtius; article in Platner's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome)