Ancient Rome

Roman Kingdom

Roman Republic
Sylla to Augustus
(510-30BC)

Imperial Rome
(27 BC - 476 AD).
Many of the Forum's monuments were originally built in the perio ds
of the Kingdom (753 BC-509 BC) and the Republic (509 BC-27 BC),
although most were destroyed and rebuilt several times. The
existing ruins generally date from the Imperial period (27 BC - 476
AD).

This monuments of the Roman Forum (Forum Romanum)

includes existing and former buildings, memorials and other buil t
structures which may be divided into three categories: (1) those
ancient structures that can be seen today as ruins or
reconstructions; (2) ancient structures that have vanished or ex ist
only as fragments; and (3) churches of the later, Christian era.
The Roman Forum

 The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) began as a market

place, but became the economic, political, and religious hub, to wn
square, and center of all Rome. Located in the small valley betw een
the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, the Forum today is a sprawling ruin
of architectural fragments and intermittent archeological excava tions
.
 The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by
the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at t he
center of the city of Rome.
 Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a
marketplace. It was the center of Roman public life: the site of
triumphal processions and elections, venue for public speeches,
criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches, and nucleus of commercial
affairs.
 Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city
were located on or near the Forum. The Kingdom's earliest shrines
and temples were located on the southeastern edge. These include d
the ancient former royal residence and temples .
 This is where the Senate — as well as Republican government itself
— began. The Senate House, government offices, tribunals,
temples, memorials and statues gradually cluttered the area.
 Over time the archaic Comitium was replaced by the larger adjacent
Forum and the focus of judicial activity moved to the new Basili ca
Aemilia (179 BC). Julius Caesar built the Basilica Julia, along with
the new Curia Julia, refocusing both the judicial offices and th e
Senate itself. This new Forum, in what proved to be its final fo rm,
then served as a revitalized city square where the people of Rom e
could gather for commercial, political, judicial and religious p ursuits
in ever greater numbers.
Surviving 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
Roman Forum. Structures of Republican Rome are shown in red, those
of Imperial Rome in black.
 During the Republican period the Comitium continued to be the central
location for all judicial and political life in the city.However, in order to
create a larger gathering place, the Senate began expanding the open
area between the Comitium and the Temple of Vesta . Building projects
of several consuls repaved and built onto both the Comitium and the
adjacent central plaza that was becoming the Forum.
 The 5th century BC witnessed the construction of the earliest Fo rum
temples with known dates of construction: the Temple of Saturn (497
BC) and the Temple of Castor and Pollux (484 BC).[10] The Temple of
Concord was added in the following century, possibly by the soldier and
statesman Marcus Furius Camillus.
 ' Rostra — originally facing north towards the Senate House to the
politicians and assembled elite — put the orator's back to the people
assembled in the Forum. A tribune known as Caius Licinius (consul in
361 BC) was supposed to have been the first to turn away from th e
Roman elite towards the people in the Forum.
Temples:

 Temple of Castor and Pollux (494 BC)

 Temple of Saturn (501 BC)
 Temple of Vesta (7th century BC)
 Temple of Caesar (29 BC)
Basilicas : Buildings for judicial activity .

 Basilica Aemilia
 Basilica Julia

Government buildings or official residences

* Regia, originally the residence of the kings of Rome or at least thei r main
headquarters, and later the office of the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of
Roman religion.
* Curia Julia, official meeting place of the Roman Senate (b uilt by Julius
Caesar, 44 BC; later reconstruction by Diocletian, 305 AD)
* Tabularium, the records office of Rome; inside is the Tabularium Museum
* Portico Dii Consentes ("Portico of the Harmonious Gods")
* Atrium Vestae, the house of the Vestal Virgins.
* Tullianum, the prison used to hold various foreign leaders and generals.
Smaller monuments:

* Rostra (New Rostra, Rostra Augusti), platform from which politicians made
their speeches to the Roman citizens
* Umbilicus Urbis Romae, the designated centre ("navel") of the city from
which, and to which, all distances in Rome and the Roman Empire were
measured (probably identical with the Mundus Cereris)
* Milliarium Aureum After Augustus erected this monument, all roads were
considered to begin here and all distances in the Roman Empire w ere
measured relative to that point.
* Column of Phocas, the last monument built within the Forum.
* Lapis Niger ("Black Stone"), a very ancient shrine which w as obscure even
to the Romans.
* Plutei of Trajan (Plutei Traiani), now in the Curia Julia
Basilica Aemilia Basilica Julia
Tabularium Curia Julia
Temple of Vesta Temple of Castor
Temple of Saturn
Temple of Caesar (29 BC)