Roman Forum

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 and the administration of justice took place. The communal hearth was also located here. It was built on the site of a past cemetery.

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 visible, dates from the reign of Augustus.

Structures within the Forum

The Roman Forum

The ruins within the forum clearly show how urban spaces were utilized during the Roman Age. The Roman Forum includes a modern statue of Julius Caesar and the following major monuments, buildings, and ancient ruins:

Temples

The remains of the Temple of Vesta.

Campo Vaccino, by Claude Lorrain.

• Temple of Castor and Pollux
• Temple of Saturn
• Temple of Vesta
• Temple of Venus and Roma
• Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
• Temple of Caesar
• Temple of Vespasian and Titus
• Temple of Concord
• Shrine of Venus Cloacina
• Basilicas
• Basilica Aemilia
• Basilica Julia
• Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine
• Arches
• Arch of Septimius Severus
• Arch of Titus
• Arch of Tiberius
• Arch of Augustus

Other structures

Roman Forum: Temple of Vespasian on the left, Arch of Septimius Severus behind the remains of the Temple of Saturn in the foreground. On the right are the three columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Palatine Hill, and slightly to the left of these is the Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Miranda. In the distance, the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus are visible.

• Regia, originally the residence of the kings of Rome or at least their main headquarters, and later the office of the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Roman religion.
• Rostra, from where politicians made their speeches to the Roman citizens
• Curia Hostilia (later rebuilt as the Curia Julia), the site of the Roman Senate
• Tabularium
• Gemonian stairs
• Clivus Capitolinus was the street that started at the Arch of Tiberius, wound around the Temple of Saturn, and ended at Capitoline Hill.
• Umbilicus Urbi, the designated centre of the city from which and to which all distances in Rome and the Roman Empire were measured
• Milliarium Aureum
• Lapis Niger, a shrine also known as the Black Stone
• Atrium Vestae, the house of the Vestal Virgins
• A processional street, the Via Sacra, linked the Atrium Vetae with the Colosseum. By the end of the Empire, it had lost its everyday use but remained a sacred place.
• Column of Phocas, the last monument built within the Forum
• Tullianum, the prison used to hold various foreign leaders and generals.

Excavation and preservation

Campo Vaccino by Herman van Swanevelt.

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. 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 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.

Other forums in Rome

The column erected in honour of the Byzantine emperor Phocas, 608: the last addition to the Roman Forum

See also: Category:Forums of 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 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. There is also:

• The Forum Boarium, dedicated to the commerce of cattle, between the Palatine Hill and the river Tiber,
• The Forum Holitorium, dedicated to the commerce of herbs and vegetables, between the Capitoline Hill and the Servian walls,
• The Forum Piscarium, dedicated to the commerce of fish, between the Capitoline hill and the Tiber, in the area of the current Roman Ghetto,
• The Forum Suarium, dedicated to the commerce of pork, near the barracks of the cohortes urbanae in the northern part of the campus Martius,
• The Forum Vinarium, 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 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.