Roman Forum

The Roman Forum is located in a valley that is between the Palatine Hill and the Capitoline Hill. It originally was a marsh, but the Romans drained the area and turned it into a center of political and social activity. The Forum was the marketplace of Rome and also the business district and civic center. It was expanded to include temples, a senate house and law courts. The classical form of these monuments was just as important as the function of the buildings. The symmetry, grace and size of each individual construction was inspired the ideas of harmony, grandeur and strength. Even today, with many monuments reduced to ruins, the beauty and power of those former structures are obvious. The main street that runs through the Forum is the Via Sacra, or the Sacred Way. This was the road that returning heroes marched triumphantly along, parading their prisoners and prizes from distant military victories. Many of Rome's leaders chose to erect monuments along this route because they wanted to leave their mark where the greatest number of people would see it, from the monuments erected by Rome's first king, Romulus, to the grand structures left by Constantine. Originally the area of the Forum was humid and covered in grass, as it was not suitable for construction. This changed in the 7th century with the construction of the Cloaca Maxima. Gradually more public buildings were constructed around the square, thus forming a natural center for the rapidly growing town. According to legend, the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, instituted the cult of Vesta and built the Regia and Tullius Hostilius built the first Curia and enclosed the area of the Comitium. Other very old monuments in the Forum area are the Vulcanal and the Lapis Niger. In republican times, the construction on the Forum continued, with a series of basilicas, notably the Basilica Sempronia and Basilica Aemilia. Also from this period are the Temple of Saturn, Temple of Castor and Pollux and Temple of Concord. The current image of the Forum Romanum is a result of the changes made by Julius Caesar, which included the construction of the Basilica Julia in the place of Basilica Sempronia, the building of a new Curia and the renovation of the Rostra (the speakers platform). Augustus completed most of Caesar's projects, including the Temple of Divus Julius, dedicated to Caesar defied. In imperial times, construction and restoration continued, but mostly in the form of honorary monuments, as the Arch of Augustus, the Arch of Titus and the Arch of Septimius Severus. New religious buildings included the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the Temple of Vespasian and Titus. The Basilica of Maxentius from the 4th century is one of the last major additions to the Forum. The Column of Phocas was the last monument to be erected in the Forum when the area was already half in ruin. The Forum Romanum suffered damage and destruction repeatedly; it was regularly scene of fierce fights between rival factions, often followed by destructive fires. Most of the buildings on the Forum was destroyed completely in 410 CE, when the Ostrogoths of Alaric sacked the town. After the fall of the empire in the west, the area was abandoned. A few buildings were converted into churches; the rest was left to shepherds and their animals, to the extent that the popular name of the area became Campo Vaccino, the cattle field. Many of the buildings served as quarries for other construction sites in the city during the Renaissance and later, and gradually dirt piled up to 5-7 m above the street level of antiquity, covering all but the tallest ruins. Archaeological excavations began in 18th century, but the site have only been excavated systematically in the 20th century. Many of the later additions to buildings and monuments have now been removed and the original street level has been restored over large parts of the Forum.

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