Roman Forum, Rome

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Octavian (63 B.C. to 14 A.D.), the only remaining member of Triumvirate and sole ruler of Rome declared himself the Emperor. He took the name of Caesar Augustus. His reign coincided with the golden age of Latin literature (Cicero, Virgil, Ovidie, Tacitus, Horace).
In 64 A.D. Rome was burned in a great fire in Nero's reign and the Christians were blamed for the great fire.
In 70 A.D. Jerusalem was rased to the ground by Titus, while Vespasian began to build the Colosseum in 72.
From 98 to 117 A.D. under the reign of Trajan, the Roman Empire reached its maximum expansion.
From 117 to 138 A.D., during Hadrian's reign, Rome was at the peak of its architectural splendour.
272 A.D. Aurelius began to build the city walls as protection against the threat of invasion by barbarians.
284 A.D., the first division of the Empire between Diocletian and Maximian.
312 A.D., Constantine the Great allowed the Christians freedom of religious practice. In 331 he transferred the capital of the Empire to Constantinople (Byzantium).
395 A.D., the Roman Empire was definitively divided between the East (Arcadius) and the West (Honorius).
404 A.D., transfer of the capital to Ravenna
410 A.D., Rome was sacked by the Goths
475 A.D., Romulus Augustulus, the last Emperor
476 A.D., the end of the Roman Empire in the West, after Odoacer have conquest the city of Rome.

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I was very pleasantly suprised by the Roman Forum. It had always been on our list of things to do in Rome but hadn't been our top priority. We did however visit it first thing in the morning on our first day as we had been told that the ticket for the forum could also be used to get in to the colosseum without so much queuing (this is true and I would strongly recommend doing this).
The Forum covers quite a large area really with a large number of buildings (or rather the remains of buildings) on the site. I personally enjoyed the curia (with bronze doors dating from ancient Roman times still intact), the house of the vestal virgins and the Arch of Titus to be most impressive. The views of the colosseum from the Arch of Titus are well worth taking a photo of.
I'm very pleased that we arrived very early. We got there about 15-20 minutes after opening and there were only 2 people ahead of us in the queue so we were in in no time at all. When we left a couple of hours later the queue was horrendous! Do go early.
They have an audio guide available which was fairly pricey and you have to leave an item of ID (such as passport or drivers licence) with them as security. Don't bother with this. Whilst I don't doubt the accuracy of the information contained on the audio guide it was dry, boring and unengaging and we stopped using it within the first 20 minutes of our visit. take a good guide book with maps of the forum with you instead.

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No visitor cannot remain indifferent in front of the fact that Rome exisit almost three thousands years now. Another amazing fact is that Rome had over million and a half inhabitants, while most of todays European capital towns reached that number only in the 20th century. The whole city structure was built of stone, streets included, and in accordance to the plan designed by the architects whos work reminded unequalled.

Where?

Between the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Divus Julius and Temple of Antoninus and Faustina

History

Said to have been built by king Numa Pompilius as a palace, it has been rebuilt scores of times so that all that can be seen today dates back to the periods of Republic or Empire. Even then, historians are not sure the ruins are those of the original building, as it may have been rebuilt in a different location following one of the fires that periodically damaged the city.

The building

All that can be seen today are the foundations, with most of the three rooms (entrance room, Mars sanctuary and Ops Consiva sanctuary) lost. Apart from being a sanctuary, thebuilding functioned as a giant archive for all things religious, political, and legal.

According to the legend, the lances in the Mars sanctuary would vibrate if a disaster was about to hit the city - it's thought they have predicted the deal of Julius Caesar in 44BC.

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An amazingly visible civilization that was the city center of Rome during 8th and 7th century BC to include churches, government, judicial processes, horse racing, gladiator matches, banquets and many other activities.

Over the course of several hundred years, civil wars occured and then floods brought debris that built up over Rome and eventually was buried. People left to find other places to rebuild and/or live. Rome essentially dwindled down to just a small community.

Rome eventually started rebuilding with the return of the church. The debrised covered Forum was escavated. Of course, this is the short story version.

We had a group tour of the Forum combined with a tour of the Colosseum. This was fairly inexpensive. As we exited the metro station at the Colosseum, we were immediately approached by people asking if you want to join a group tour. For €25 per person, this paid for the entrance tickets to both the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and tour guide(s). This seemed reasonable to us. You can probably find a tour for less and I'm sure there are other tours for more. Advance reservations for tours are not necessary unless you have a large group and you want to stay altogether. This was convenient for us as we did not have to commit to a time or date of when we would see the Colosseum and Roman Forum.

The Roman Forum was the center of daily life in Rome, filled with temples, markets, courts and all kinds of other public buildings. Today, the Forum is little more than a few scattered rock piles, but with a little imagination and the help of an audio guide the glory of Rome unfolds at your very feet. In the Forum, you'll see the Roman Senate, where Rome’s finest citizenry met to decide the issues of the day, as well as the remains Rome's greatest temples including the Temple of Saturn, The Temple of Jupiter and the Temple of the Vestal Virgins. This tour is designed help you make sense of the rubble and recreate the story of Rome from the time when Caesar built it into the greatest city in the Empire until Nero watched it burn. A great resource for budget travelers. http://www.walki-talki.com/index.html

I visited the Colosseum with a guide (Romaround tours) and our tour also included a guided walk around the Forums (different guy than from the Colosseum tour - this one was from England, his name was Harry). I didn't actually know anything about the Forum before coming here and this tour was a great way to learn more about the ruins.

The Forum was the centre of political and commercial life in ancient Rome and it is here that the ruins of that civilisation lie. There are beautiful columns, arches, temples, basilicas (which were the largest buildings in the area) and other ancient sites like Rostra (where people were allowed to make public speeches) to look at while you're there.

I really am glad I came here with a guide, otherwise I'm not sure I would have appreciated what I was looking at. If you don't want to walk around in a group, then at least get yourself a great guidebook to help show you your way around.

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Roman Forum (pic 1) is an amazing open air area that has so much history that we spent some hours here.

This was the center of public life for more a thousand years, it was here where all the major decisions were taken, the political center and a meeting place and a business area (no surprise they built the market here)…

So much history in this place, that’s why in our days a great spot us to check the ruins of important monuments, statues and other structures. I was surprised that there weren’t as much people as at the other sites of the area like in Colosseum but if you are into history you will love the Forum. We walked slowly among the ruins and made small stops to read about the monuments.

Some of them are:
The Arch Of Titus (pic 2) stands proud since 81AD when Domidian erected it to honor his brother Titus.
Column of Phocas is a 14m high Corinthian column that was erected in 608AD
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (pic 3) was built in 141AD in honor of the deified Empress. We can see some columns at the front and side. The temple was converted into church (of San Lorenzo in Miranda) in 12th century.
Curia is probably the best preserved building in the Forum. It was the meeting place of the Roman Senate
Temple of Castor and Pollux (pic 4)
Temple of Vesta was built in greek style with 20 corinthian columns around a podium
Temple of Romulus (pic 5) was dedicated by Maxentius to his son Romulus who died in 309. Later (in 527) it was converted into a church dedicated to the greek Saints Damian and Cosmas
Temple of Saturn was built in 497BC and it was one of the most important temples of its era although the 8 columns that still stand on Forum cant tell much. Right next to it stand 3 columns from the Temple of Vespasian and Titus that was built in 87AD.