Forum
A word which first signified an open space (
area) before any
building, especially before a sepulchre ( Fest. s. v.). It is no doubt connected with
foris, and so means any place “out of doors.” The
characteristic features of a Roman forum were, that it was a levelled space of ground of an
oblong form, and surrounded by buildings, houses, temples, basilicas or porticoes (Vitruv. v.
1, 2). The forum at Pompeii, now completely excavated and showing very handsome architectural
surroundings, affords a good general notion of the usual appearance of these places and the
way they were laid out. A forum was originally used as a place where justice was administered,
and where goods were exhibited for sale (Varro,
L. L. v. 145). One must
accordingly distinguish between two kinds of fora, of which some were real marketplaces, while
others were places of meeting for the popular assembly and for the courts of justice.
Mercantile business, however, was not altogether excluded from the latter, and it was
especially the bankers and usurers who kept their shops in the buildings and porticoes by
which they were surrounded. The latter kinds of fora were sometimes called
fora
iudicialia, to distinguish them from the mere market-places.
Among the
fora iudicialia the most important was the Forum Romānum, which was simply called
Forum,
as long as it was the only one of its kind which existed at Rome. At a late period of the
Republic, and during the Empire when other
fora iudicialia were built,
the Forum Romanum was distinguished from them by the epithets
vetus or
magnum. It was situated between the Palatine, the Capitoline, and the
Quirinal Hills, and its extent was seven
iugera (Varro,
R.
R. i. 2). It was originally a swamp or marsh, but was said to have been filled up by
Romulus and Tatius, and to have been set apart as a place for the administration of justice,
for the assemblies of the people, and for other kinds of public business. It was drained by
the construction of the Cloaca Maxima in the time of the last kings. (See
Cloaca;
Emissarium.) In the
larger sense, as applied to the whole valley surrounded by the three hills just named, the
Forum included the Comitium, or the open place of assembly for the curiae (Varro,
L.
L. v. 155) in the centre of the Forum proper. Ancient rostra were an elevated platform
(
suggestum), from which the orators addressed the people, and which
derived their name from the circumstance that, after the subjugation of Latium, the sides of
the platform were adorned with the beaks (
rostra) of the ships of the Antiates (
Livy, viii. 14). In subsequent times,
when the curiae had lost their importance, the accurate distinction between Comitium and Forum
likewise ceased, and the Comitia Tributa were sometimes held in the Circus Flaminius; but
towards the end of the Republic the Forum seems to have been chiefly used for judicial
proceedings, and as a sort of Exchange. The orators, when addressing the people from the
rostra, and even the tribunes of the people in the early times of the Republic, used to front
the Comitium and the Curia; but C. Gracchus, or perhaps C. Licinius, introduced the custom of
facing the Forum, thereby acknowledging the sovereignty of the people. In B.C. 308 the Romans
adorned the Forum, or rather the bankers' shops (
argentariae) around,
with the gilded shields which they had taken from the Samnites: and this custom of adorning
the Forum with these shields and other ornaments was subsequently al
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Plan of the Imperial Fora (1893).
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ways observed during the time of the Ludi Romani, when the aediles rode in their
chariots (
tensae) in solemn procession around the Forum (
Livy, ix. 40). After the victory of C. Duilius over the Carthaginians
the Forum was adorned with the celebrated
Columna
Rostrata (q.v.). In the upper part of the Forum, or the Comitium, the laws of the
Twelve Tables were exhibited for public inspection, and it was probably in the same part that
in B.C. 304 Cn. Flavius exhibited the Fasti, written on white tables (
in
albo), that every citizen might be able to know the days on which the law allowed the
administration of justice. (See
Dies.) Besides the
ordinary business which was carried on in the Forum, we read that gladiatorial games were held
in it (Vitruv. v. 1, 2), and that prisoners of war and faithless colonists or legionaries were
put to death there (
Livy, vii. 19;
ix.
24;
xxviii. 28). Down to the latest times of the
Republic, the Forum was the usual place where funeral games were given; on these occasions it
was temporarily enclosed with wooden railings (
Pro Sest. 58, 124). See
Cancelli.
The ancient structures in the Forum were restored by Theodoric in the sixth century A.D.,
and down to the eighth century the original level was unchanged; but during the Middle Ages
the magnificent edifices of ancient Rome were used as a quarry from which churches and secular
buildings drew their building-stones, marbles, columns, and even their lime, which was derived
from burning the ancient marble in kilns. Still more eagerly were the bronzes appropriated, so
that it is not surprising that so few works of art, comparatively, have survived. In the
eleventh century, the Forum was covered with the towers and fortress-walls of the mediaeval
nobles, and the ultimate demolition of these covered the ground with a layer of rubbish to
which fresh deposits were continuously made, especially when new buildings were reared and new
streets constructed. The result is that the original level is now in some places fully forty
feet below the surface. From the Middle Ages down to the present century, the site of the
Forum was called Campo Vaccino. Its desolate area was given up to the buffaloes and oxen of
the peasantry, to the scattered workshops of the meaner artisans, and to the few ruined
columns that protruded from the rubbish as a melancholy reminiscence of its former glories.
Such investigations and excavations as were first made under Raphael
(especially in
1546-47) were undertaken solely in the search for works of art, and the trenches were
soon refilled; but in the present century, more scientific research began. In 1803 the Arch of
Septimius Severus (see page 118), in 1813 the Column of Phocas, and in
1816-19 the Capitoline Hill with its temples were disinterred by Carlo Fea. Subsequently to
1835, the Basilica Iulia was in part recovered by Canina, and since 1871, when the Italian
government occupied Rome as the capital of Italy, the work of excavation has been pushed with
vigour. The Temples of Castor, Caesar, Faustina, Vespasian, etc., the Atrium Vestae, and the
rest of the Basilica have been exhumed, besides a good part of the adjacent streets.
In the period between Iulius Caesar and Trajan the five imperial fora were erected.
1.
The first of these, and the second
forum iudiciarium, was built by the
dictator Caesar out of the spoils of the Gallic War, and was called Forum Caesăris or
Iulii. The site
chosen was exceptionally crowded and valuable, immediately to the northeast of the Forum
Romanum, and a hundred million sesterces ($4,000,000) were paid for it. The levelling of the
ground cost large additional sums; in the centre stood the magnificent temple of Venus
Genetrix, the tutelary goddess of Caesar's family, which he had vowed at the battle of
Pharsalia (
Iul. 26). Nothing now remains of this Forum but five half-buried
arches.
2.
The Forum Augusti, the next in date, stood back from the Forum
Iulii in the same direction. The central area was occupied by the temple of Mars Ultor,
commemorating the battle of Philippi, though it was not finished until forty years later, and
dedicated in B.C. 2 (Vell. Pat. ii. 109.2). Augustus further adorned his Forum with statues
of the most distinguished men of the Republic, and issued a decree that only the
iudicia publica and the
sortitiones iudicum should take
place in it (
Suet. Aug. 29 and 31). After the
Forum Augusti had severely suffered by fire, it was restored by Hadrian (Spart.
Hadr. 19).
3.
The Forum Pacis was built to enclose the Temple of Peace,
dedicated by Vespasian A.D. 75. It commemorated the close of the civil wars which had filled
the short reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, the undisputed authority of the emperor, and
the taking of Jerusalem (
Suet. Vesp. 9; Dio
Cass. lxvi. 15). According to Pliny (
Pliny H. N.
xxxvi. 102) the three most magnificent buildings in Rome were the Basilica of
Paullus, the Forum of Augustus, and Vespasian's Temple of Peace. The site was to the
southeast of the Forum of Augustus, but did not quite join it, a wide street from the Subura
to the Forum Romanum being left between. This narrow strip afterwards became the Forum
Transitorium of Nerva. There are no remains of the Temple of Peace.
4.
The situation of the Forum of Nerva has been already indicated.
It was called Transitorium, on account of the highway which ran
through it; or
Palladium, from containing a
Temple of Minerva. The two Corinthian columns, buried to about half their height, and
now called Colonnacce, belonged to this temple; part of the outer wall of the Forum is also
extant.
5.
The Forum Traiāni was probably the most magnificent of
all. It occupied a large space between the Capitoline and Quirinal Hills, the latter of which
was cut back to a height of 100 Roman feet, as shown by the inscription on the Column of
Trajan. The entrance was at the lower or southern end, where a triumphal arch, surmounted by
a statue of Trajan in a six-horse chariot, divided it from the Forum of Augustus. The open
space was surrounded by a double row of porticos, and enlarged by four enormous apses or
semicircular extensions, one of which can still be traced in the slope of the Quirinal. In
the centre stood the Basilica Ulpia, which fills the greater part of the modern Foro Traiano;
beyond it was a cloistered court (
atrium) surrounding the celebrated
column which bears Trajan's name, and flanked by two libraries—one for Greek, the
other for Latin MSS. At the upper end it was closed by the Temple of Trajan, dedicated by his
successor. The splendour of the Forum Traiani greatly impressed the later Romans. Ammianus
Marcellinus, in an account of a visit made to Rome by the emperor Constantius, describes a
guest of that prince, a Persian, as amazed by this great work, “so
exquisite,” says the historian, “that the gods themselves would find it
hard to refuse their admiration” (xvi. 14).
Different from these fora were the numerous markets at Rome, some of them reaching back to
a very high antiquity. The most important was the Forum Boarium, or
cattle market, occupying a large space between the Velabrum and the Tiber; the notion that it
derived its name from the statue of an ox, whencesoever imported (Ovid,
Fast. vi. 477), can hardly be right, as it was almost certainly so
named long before statues were introduced at Rome. Others which took their names from the
goods sold in them were the Forum Olitorium and Piscatorium, for vegetables and fish, Suarium for pigs, Cupedĭnis or Cupedinarium for dainties.
Of the Forum Romanum the bearings and dimensions form one of the most disputed points of
Roman topography. The excavations at Pompeii, however, have opened the Forum of that city,
the remains of which are sufficiently preserved to enable us to trace the ground-plans of the
various edifices surrounding it, and to assign some probable use to each of them; and will
thus
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Roman Forum Restored.
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afford a general notion of the usual appearance of these places, and of
the manner in which they were laid out. The central area is paved with large square flags, on
which the bases for many statues still remain, and surrounded by a Doric colonnade of two
stories, backed by a range of spacious and lofty buildings all round. The principal entrance
is through an archway (
fornix) (a), on the
lower end of the annexed plan, and by the side of a temple of the Corinthian order (b), supposed to have been dedicated to Iupiter. On the opposite flank
of this temple is another entrance into the Forum, and by its side the public prison (
carcer) (c), in which the bones of two men with
fetters on their legs were found. Adjacent to this is a long shallow building (d), with several entrances from the colonnade, surmised by the Italian
archaeologists to have been apublic granary (
horreum). The next building
is another temple of the Corinthian order (e), dedicated to Apollo,
as is learned from an inscription found on the spot. It stands in an area enclosed by a blank
wall and peristyle, to which the principal entrance is in a side street, abutting on the
Forum, and flanking the basilica (f), beyond which there are three
private houses out of the precincts of the Forum. The farther or southern side of the square
is occupied by three public edifices (g, h, i), nearly similar to
one another in their plans and dimensions. All these were decorated with columns and statues,
fragments of which were found upon the floor; but
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Restoration of the North Side of the Forum at Pompeii. (Overbeck.)
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Plan of the Forum at Pompeii. (Rich.)
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there are no sufficient grounds for deciding the uses for which they were destined.
The first is merely conjectured to have been a council chamber (
curia);
the second, the treasury (
aerarium); and the last, another curia. Beyond
these is another street, opening on the Forum; and, turning the angle, are the remains of a
square building (k), for which no satisfactory use can be
suggested. The space behind is occupied by the sites of three private houses. The next object
is a large plot of ground (l), surrounded by a colonnade (
porticus) and a cloister (
crypta), and decorated in front, where it faces the Forum, by a spacious entrance porch or vestibule
(
chalcidicum), all of which were constructed at the expense of a
woman named Eumachia. Beyond this is a small temple (m) upon a
raised basement, attributed by some to Mercury, by others to Quirinus; and adjoining it, an
edifice (n), with a large semicircular tribune or absis at its
farther extremity, supposed to have been a meeting-hall for the Augustales, or a town-hall
(
senaculum) for the Pompeian Senate. The rear of both these structures
is covered by the premises belonging to a fuller's establishment (
fullonica). The last structure (o) is a magnificent
building, with various appurtenances behind it, commonly called the Pantheon, from twelve
pedestals placed in a circle round an altar in their centre, supposed to have supported the
statues of the Dii Magni, or twelve principal divinities.
On the whole subject see Marucchi,
Descrizione del Foro Romano (Rome,
1883); Lanciani,
Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries
(Boston, 1888); Nichols,
The Roman Forum (London, 1877);
Jordan,
Capitol, Forum, und Via Sacra (Rome, 1884); Ziegler,
Das Alte Rom (Stuttgart, 1882); Middleton,
Ancient Rome
in 1885, chaps. v. vi. viii.; id.
Remains of Ancient Rome, vol. i.
chaps. vi. vii. and vol. ii. chap. i.
(London, 1892); and the article
Roma.
