Roman Forum

This page refers to the main forum in the center of Rome. See Imperial forums or Other forums in Rome (below) for other forums in Rome and other Roman provincial cities.
See Forum (Roman) for the type of building.
Roman Forum (Forum Romanum)
Roman Forum (Becchetti).gif
Artist's rendering of the Roman Forum as it may have appeared during the Empire
Structures Tabularium, Gemonian stairs, Temple of Saturn, Temple of Vespasian and Titus, Arch of Septimius Severus, Curia, Rostra Augusti, Basilica Aemilia, Forum Main Square, Basilica Iulia, Temple of Caesar, Regia, Temple of Castor and Pollux, Temple of Vesta
Imperial Comitium Curia Julia, Rostra Augusti, Umbilicus Urbi, Milliarium Aureum, Lapis Niger,
The Roman Forum is the oldest part of the city of Rome.
These articles cover the Ancient Roman Comitium and Forum of the Republican and Imperial periods

The Roman Forum, also known by its original Latin designation (Latin: Forum Romanum, Italian: Foro Romano), is located between the Palatine Hill and the Capitoline Hill of the city of Rome, Italy. Citizens of the ancient city referred to the location as the "Forum Magnum" or just the "Forum". It is part of the centralised area around which the ancient Roman civilization developed.

The oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located in or near the Forum. These include its ancient former royal residency the Regia as well as the surrounding complex of the Vestal Virgins, both of which were rebuilt after the rise of imperial Rome. The kingdom's earliest shrines and temples were located on the forum's western edge. These shrines developed into the Republic's formal Comitium, where the Senate, as well as Republican government began. The Senate House, government offices, Tribunals, religious monuments, memorials and statues cluttered the area. Over time the archaic Comitium would be replaced by the larger Forum, moving government to the Basilica Aemilia. 80 years later the Basilica Julia would be built along with the new Curia Julia moving both the judicial offices and the senate itself. The Forum would serve as the new city square where the people of Rome could gather for political, judicial and religious ritual in greater number. The Forum became the economic hub of the city, as well as the center of the Kingdom, Republic and Empire.

Eventually all economic and judicial business would transfer away from the Forum to larger and more extravagant structures. After the building of Trajan's forum, economic and judicial activity transferred to the Basilica Ulpia. Shortly before the empire split in two, Constantine built the Basilica of Maxentius with the last major expansion of the Forum. This returned the political center to the forum before the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Contents

Overview

Map of the Roman Forum, from Samuel Ball Platner's The Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome (1904) (altered for clarity)

The ancient Greek plateia (πλατεία), a public plaza or town square, was the model utilised as the basis to the Roman forum. Its basilicas, although originally designed as government offices, were the bases of the first elaborate Christian churches. The architecture of the temples and judicial buildings of the Roman forum can be seen copied in many of today's modern government structures that are still arranged around a central public space.

Originally the site of the Forum had been marshy ground, which was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima. Because of its location, sediments from both the flooding of the Tiber River and the erosion of the surrounding hills have been raising the level of the Forum floor for centuries. Excavated sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the surrounding hills was already raising the level in early Republican times. As the ground around buildings began to rise, residents simply paved over the debris that was too much to remove. Its final travertine paving, still visible, dates from the reign of Augustus. Excavations in the 19th century revealed one layer on top of another. The deepest level excavated was 3.60 meters above sea level. Archaeological finds show human activity at that level with the discovery of carbonised wood.

The original Forum began as an open air market near the Comitium, but out grew its day to day shopping and marketplace needs. As Politics, judicial matters and trials began to take up more and more space, forums throughout the city began to emerge to expand on specific needs of the growing population. Forums for cattle, pork, vegetables and wine specialised in their niche products and the associated deities around them.

History

Kingdom

The area of the Forum was originally a grassy wetland. It was drained in the 7th century BC by building the Cloaca Maxima, a large covered sewer system that drained into the Tiber River, as more people began to settle between the two hills.

According to tradition, the forum's beginnings are connected with the alliance between Romulus, the first king of Rome controlling the Palatine Hill, and his rival, Titus Tatius who occupied the Capitoline Hill. Accordingly, an alliance formed after combat had been halted by the prayers and cries of the Sabine women. Because the valley lay between the two settlements, it was the designated place for the two peoples to meet. Since the early forum area was mostly pools of stagnant water, the only accessible area was the northern part of the valley which was designated as the Comitium. It was here that the two parties laid down their weapons and formed an alliance.[1]

The forum was outside the walls of the original Sabine fortress, which was entered through the Porta Saturni. These walls were mostly destroyed when the two hills were joined.[2]

The second king, Numa Pompilius, is said to have begun the cult of Vesta, building its house and temple as well as the Regia as the city's first royal palace. Later Tullus Hostilius enclosed the Comitium around the old Etruscan temple where the senate would meet at the site of the Sabine conflict. He is said to have converted the temple into the Curia Hostilia close to where the Senate originally met in an old Etruscan hut. In 600 BC Tarquinius Priscus had the area paved for the first time.

Republic

Original archeology sketch of the forum.

During the Republican period the comitium continued to be the central location for all judicial and political life in the city of Rome.[3] However, in order to create space, as well as a larger gathering place, the senate began expanding both the forum and Comitium by purchasing existing private homes and removing them for public use. Building projects of several consuls and emperors repaved and built onto both the Comitium and the Forum.[4]

Many of the traditions from the Comitium such as the popular assemblies, funerals of the nobility and games were transferred to the forum.[5] Gaius Gracchus is credited with or accused of disturbing mos maiorum ("custom of the fathers/ancestors") in ancient Rome. A long held tradition of speaking from the elevated speakers' Rostra facing north towards the senate house to the politicians and assembled elite put the orators back to the people assembled in the Forum Romanum behind the Comitium. A tribune known as Caius Licinius was the first to turn away from the Roman elite towards the people in the forum, an act repeated later by Gracchus.[6] This began the tradition of locus popularis, where, even young nobles were expected to speak from the Rostra.

The fifth century saw the construction of the Temple of Castor and Pollux. The temple of Concord was added in the fourth century BC, possibly by Marcus Furius Camillus. The Basilica Aemilia is a Republican structure but had several names after its initial dedication in 179 BC. In 78 BC,the Tabularium was built by order of M. Aemilius Lepidus and Q. Lutatius Catulus.

Over time the Comitium was lost to the ever-growing Curia and to Julius Caesar's rearrangements before his assassination in 44 BC. After Caesar's death Octavius finished the work and the focus shifted to the Forum. The relationship between the Comitium and the Forum Romanum eventually faded from the writings of the ancients. It is last written of in the reign of Septimus Severus.

Empire

Augustus Caesar is said to have stated "I found Rome a city of brick, and left it a city of marble". What is true is that Octavian continued the building projects of his predecessor and began many of his own directly in the forum. After the death of Caesar and the Battle of Actium, the victor erected the Temple to the Deified Caesar an act of raising the status of his uncle to, not just a political position, but making him a god in the eyes of the Empire.

Medieval

Rome: Ruins of the Forum, Looking towards the Capitol (1742) by Canaletto

In the 5th century the old edifices within the Forum began to be transformed into Christian churches. By the 8th century the whole space was surrounded by Christian churches taking the place of the abandoned and ruined temples.[7]

An anonymous 8th century traveler from Einsiedeln (now in Switzerland) reported that the Forum was already falling apart 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.

After the 8th century the structures of the Forum were dismantled, re-arranged and used to build feudal towers and castles within the local area. In the 13th century these rearranged structures were torn down and the site became a dumping ground. This, along with the debris from the dismantled medieval buildings and ancient structures, helped contribute to the rising ground level.[8]

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.

Excavation and preservation

Artists from the late 15th century drew the ruins in the Forum, antiquaries copied inscriptions in 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.

Remains from several centuries are shown together, due to the Roman practice of building over earlier ruins.

The site today

Today archeological excavations continue along with restoration and continued preservation. Now a tourist destination in the city, the forum is open for foot traffic along the ancient Roman roads restored at a late Imperial level. In 2008 heavy rains caused structural damage to the modern concrete covering holding the "Black Stone" marble together over the Vulcanal.

The Forum Romanum. View facing North East from above the Portico Dii Consentes.

Existing structures

Many of the Forum's temples date to the periods of the Kingdom and the Republic, although most were destroyed and rebuilt several times. The ruins within the Forum clearly show how urban spaces were used during the Roman age. The Forum presently includes a modern statue of Julius Caesar and the following major monuments, buildings, and ancient ruins:

Temples

Temple date built Built by location in the forum
Temple of Castor and Pollux 494 BC Aulus Postumius Albinus South side, east of the Basilica Julia
Temple of Saturn 501 BC Tarquinius Superbus South side, west of the Basilica Julia
Temple of Vesta 7th century BC Numa Pompilius South east corner, next to the Temple of Castor and Pollux
Temple of Venus and Roma 135 AD Hadrian Late Imperial forum expansion to the farthest east of the Regia, Directly across from the Colosseum
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina 141 AD Antoninus Pius North side, east of the Basilica Aemilia
Temple of Caesar 29 BC Augustus East side, west of the Regia
Temple of Vespasian and Titus 79 CE Titus and Domitian West edge below the Tabularium South of the Temple of Concord and north of the Portico Dii Consentes
Temple of Concord
Temple of Romulus
Shrine of Venus Cloacina

All the temples are workes or art and where all made for different purposes

Basilicas

Arches

Other

Other fora in Rome

Other fora existed in other areas of the city; remains of most of them, sometimes substantial, still exist. 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 Nerva), 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. There is also:

Other markets were known but remain unidentifiable due to a lack of precise information on the function of the sites. Among these, the Forum cuppedinis, was known as a general market for many goods.

References

Citations
  1. ↑ Marucchi, Horace (1906). The Roman Forum and the Palatine According to the Latest Discoveries. Paris: Lefebvre. pp. 1–2. 
  2. ↑ Parker, John Henry (1881). The Architectural History of the City of Rome. Oxford: Parker and Company. p. 122. 
  3. ↑ Vasaly, Ann (1996). Representations: Images of the World in Ciceronian Oratory. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-520-07755-5. 
  4. ↑ Young, Norwood, ed. (1908). Handbook for Rome and the Campagna. London: John Murray. p. 95. 
  5. ↑ Baedeker, Karl (1903). Italy: Handbook for Travellers. Leipzig: Karl Baedeker. p. 251. 
  6. ↑ Beard, Mary; North, John A.; Price, Simon (1998). Religions of Rome: A History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 109 (note 139). ISBN 0-521-30401-6. 
  7. ↑ Marucchi, p. 9.
  8. ↑ Goodyear, W. H. (1899). Roman and Medieval Art. New York: Macmillan. p. 109. 
Other sources

See also

External links

Comprehensive sites

Primarily visual