Mansuite

Today, we are talking about the ancient Roman Forum, the core of the thriving republican and imperial city that once stood at the center of the entire universe. Some, of course, may argue that it still does, but the city we will be talking about today--that of 2000 years ago--certainly did.

Today's lecture will focus on the Roman Forum! The Roman Forum, nestled in between three of the seven original hills of Rome--the Capitoline, Palatine, and Esquline--was the center for all public matters. It contained architectural and public spaces that supported political, religious, economic, judicial, and honorary social functions. As such, the forum grew to be an incredibly diverse space characterized by an equally diverse set of new architectural inventions. The ruins we can see now mark the physical footprint left by the values and principles of an incredibly complex ancient world, one that marked the beginnings of much of the western values and systems we know today. The forum, even in its crumbled state, challenges us to imagine how so many of our contemporary social practices were in fact built into a world that thrived so long ago.

Plan of the Forum. The Black dots represent columns.

So, what did this place look like? Good question. The earliest developments of the forum occurred around VI-V BC, when the first urbanization came to the cradle in between the three hills. During this early stage Via Saccra, the road that slices through the forum to this day, was planned and mapped. The Palatine Hill to the south, which is now marked primarily by the ruins of a much later Imperial palace, was populated by Etruscan style homes during this early stage of civic development. The presence of residential architecture at this early stage marks the primitive level of Roman development at this time; the population was small and centralized, with the earliest inhabitants living on the land that would later become solely public and imperial space.

This cornice once stood 75 feet in the air--maybe even higher, but it still had to be perfect.

Things start to get really interesting in the forum during the republican revolution. Political functions are decentralized, ushering in the separation of the senate, the rostra, and comitium, and the basilica. Now, what were these things? Great question. The senate was, of course, the meeting place for magistrates. It took the form of the curia, the senate building located at the northwest corner of the Via Saccra. Then we have the rostra, the stage like platform where orators would address the public. Originally it was attached to the curia, but it was moved to the center of forum in years later. Finally, we have the basilica, which served a diverse set of functions. The basilicas worked as a meeting place where financial transactions, market shops/expos, and judicial trails could be held. There are two main basilicas in the forum: the basilica Amelia and the basilica Iulia. They differ in that the the Basilica Julia is much larger, with a central nave and two side isles on each side. You can see the scale difference in the plans:

The larger Basilica Iulia on the bottom, with a center nave area and two side aisles. A nice place to hang out.

The Forum was also populated with a number of temples and honorary columns. The honorary column was kind of a funny thing. It was basically a pedestal that held a singular column on top of which you would find a statue of the man being honored. More often than not these fellows were the ones rich enough to commission sculptors to make the honorary columns, not necessarily ones deserving honor.