Roman Forum, Rome

The Roman Forum was the centre of the civic and economic life of Rome in the Republican era and kept its prominent role even in the Imperial age. The monumental complex lies between the Capitol, the Imperial Forums, the Colosseum and the Palatine.

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The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) was the central area of the city around which ancient Rome developed. Here was where commerce, business, prostitution, cult and the administration of justice took place. Space where religious activities were conducted and the communal hearth of the city.

The Roman Forum was designed by the architect Vitruvius with proportions 3:2 (length to width). For centuries, the Forum Romanum was the site of the city's most important public buildings, such as the Arch of Septimius Severus, built in AD203 and the Roman Forum Rostra or platforms for public speeches. The reliefs on the triple arch represented many of Rome's victories over oriental tribes and the Rostra was decorated with prows of warships captured during battles. The Roman Forum became the spectacular showcase of the Roman Empire filled with beautiful statues and architecture.
The main sight of the Forum include the Arch of Titus (Arco di Tito), the Temple of Saturn, Temple of Vesta, and the church of San Luca e Martina. These are all linked by the Sacra Via, the main road through the Forum.

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Once the Roman center of religion, commerce and justice, the Forum is now a jumbled maze of tumbled columns, ruined foundations and churches erected on pre-Christian temples. It is not an easy place to visit as you need to either bring a very good guidebook, rent an audioguide or book a tour to make sense of it all. It can also be very crowded, very hot in summer and tough on your feet but to walk the Via Sacra (Sacred Way) is to follow in the footsteps of Kings, Emperors, Senators, mighty Roman generals and Vestal Virgins over two thousand years ago. This not to be missed - however you choose to do it.

Tickets include entry to Palatine Hill and the Colosseum and cost 9 or 11 euro depending on special exhibits (I read that 11 is usually the going rate). Audioguides can be rented for about 4 euro at the gift shop at the Forum entrance on Via dei Fori Imperiali. To help understand the maze of ruins before your walk, there are excellent overlooks from the Campidoglio on Capitoline Hill and Farnese Gardens on Palatine Hill. Getting handle on some of the more interesting ruins before your trip is a good idea too - I'm attaching a website that has lots of pictures and background on many of the remaining structures and will try to include tips on a few as well.

The Forum is hauntingly beautiful when illuminated night. While not open to visitors in the evenings, it's well worth a stroll past just to see it all lit up.

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I come to bury Caesar , not to praise him."

So begins one of the most famous speeches of all time. Shakespeare put the words into the mouth of Mark Antony and had him deliver them at the burial of Julius Caesar. We don't know where Caesar is actually buried, but the Temple of Julius Caesar at the Roman Forum marks the place where his body was cremated.

Not much remains of the temple now, just as not much remains of any of the fine buildings that once graced this, historically, the most important of all the Roman fora (singular - forum; plural - fora). For more than 300 years, this was the very heart of Republican Rome, the locus of the republic's politics, judiciary, commerce and religion.

Given how important this place was, its totally ruinous state might be something of a surprise until you know that the process of neglect and decay began as long ago as the 1st century AD with the building of Augustus' Forum, the first of several new and splendid fora built by succeeding emperors bent on self-aggrandisment. The old Republican Forum ceased to be the fulcrum of city life that it had been. Rome itself began to decline and when Constantine moved the capital from Rome to Constantinopole in 330 AD, things could only get worse. The abolition of pagan worship saw the temples closed, stripped of their wealth and left deserted. Fire, earthquakes and the barbarian invasions of the 5th century AD all contributed to the decay and slowly the swamp that had been drained for the building of the Forum reclaimed the land until virtually nothing remained visible to tell of the splendours that had once stood here.

The excavations that began in the 18th century continue to this day and there is rarely a day when archaeologists are not working somewhere on the site.

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You can certainly get a good look at the Arch of Septimius Severus without going in to the Forum, but pay your money and you can actually play Roman triumphator (or vanquished enemy) and walk beneath the arch - the only one where this is possible - and get some idea of the lavish scale with which the Romans honoured their heroes.

Erected in 203AD to honour Septimius Severus' victory against the Parthians, this arch stands at the north-western end of the Forum. Although the reliefs on the piers are badly eroded, the Winged Victories (photo 2) on the spandrels of the arch (a feature common to most classically-inspired triumphal arches even today) are in beautiful condition as the arch was once incorporated into a mediaeval Christian church who retained ownership of the structure after the church was moved. thus preventing the arch being used as a quarry for dressed stone - the fate of so many buildings of this era.

The Parthian prisoners lower down have not fared quite so well but are still clearly identifiable in their trousers and Phrygian caps (photo 4 - and, a small aside, the Mithraic cult that was so popular with the Roman army and included Septimius Severus amongst its adherents came out of Parthia).

Septimius Severus, the only African-born emperor, was born in Leptis Magna in Libya where you'll find another magnificent triumphal arch dedicated to him.

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The four triumphal arches in the area of the Roman Forum stand as symbols of one of Rome's most important traditions - the triumph awarded to their greatest heroes on their return to Rome after a military victory over an major enemy. In Republican times, awarding such a triumph was the prerogative of the Senate and was the greatest honour that could be bestowed, bringing with it public accolades that raised the triumphator to almost god-like status. Following the fall of the Republic, the emperors seized the right to grant triumphs from the magistrates, and they became more celebrations of imperial wealth and status and the arches that were built to accompany them were not only dedicated to such military victories. Although all the arches at the Forum were built in this Imperial tradition, they do honour emperors who were noted for their military successes.

The Arch of Titus is the oldest survivor. Built by the emperor Domitian in 81AD to honour his brother Titus' victories in the Jewish War that saw the sack of Jerusalem in 70AD, the reliefs of the inner surface of the arch portray vivdly the triumph awarded to Titus and his father Vespasian on their return to Rome, bringing with them the spoils of the war, including the menorah and other sacred items from Jerusalem's Temple, the only contemorary record of these precious artifacts in existence.

Titus himself can be seen in the opposite panel and his deification is portrayed in the central panel of the coffered underside of the arch. The main inscription on the arch tells us that it is dedicated to the "divine Titus Vespasianus Augustus, son of the divine Vespasian."

None of the outer reliefs survived the arch being used as part of a mediaeval defence system - the brilliantly white Travertine facings were placed on the arch when it was restored in 1821. An inscription on one side of the arch records this restoration.

Whilst you can no longer walk through the arch, you can certainly get close enough to get a really good look at the sculptures on the inner surfaces.

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The first time I visited the Roman Forum (we won't count how many years ago that was!), there were few paths, virtually nothing was roped off and there were no signs to help you work out what was what. Well, signs are still few and far between but paths are clearly defined and fenced and you can no longer wander through the inner sanctum of the Vestal Virgins or stand on the steps of the Rostrum.

Entry is no longer free either, charges were introduced this year (2008). The current price is nominally 9 euros (plus 2 euros if there's a special exhibition on in the Colosseum - and it seems there almost always is!) but this covers entry to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Forum and the ticket is valid for 2 days so you don't have to overdose on ancient history all in one hit. Visiting the Forum first and buying your ticket there is a good way to avoid the often horrendous queues at the Colosseum.

If you want to make real sense of what you're looking at, you'll definitely need a guide of some sort - and a bit of pre-reading wouldn't go astray either.

Before you actually buy your ticket and go in, do make your way to the little plaza above the Arch of Septimus Severus (in the north-west corner) from where you get a real appreciation of how far below the modern street level the Forum is (up to 70 feet in places!)

Like so many archaeological sites, shade is almost non-existent, so wear a hat, carry some water and take a break in the middle of the day. You'll have to leave the site when you want to eat - along with the introduction of the new charges, bringing food in is no longer allowed - the days of a picnic in the Forum, a lunchtime favourite of tourists and locals, are over.

The site opens at 0830 every day except New Years Day and Christmas Day. Closing times vary according to the season but are timed to about an hour before sunset and the last ticket sales of the day are an hour before that.

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These three gigantic barrel vaults are about all that remain of what was the largest structure in the Forum. Constructed in the 4th century under Maxentius and then Constantine, this building was used for judicial, commercial and administrative purposes. While we think of a basilica as a church, in ancient Rome it simply meant a public building. An apse on the west side originally held an enormous statue of Maxentius that Constantine, ever the thrifty and egotistical Emperor, later altered to look like himself. You can see the head and some other remaining bits of this colossus in the Palazzo dei Conservatori (see my tip on Musei Capitolini). In my humble opinion, Constantine either had really big, buggy eyes or the dude he hired for the statue's facelift was mad at him or something - it's sort of a puffy, frog-eyed thing.

Amusing note: In the second picture, can you find the young couple having a little smooch?