FORUM HOLITORIUM
the vegetable market of Rome (Varro,
LL v. 146:
ubi quid generatim, additum ab eo cognomen ut forum boarium, forum
olitorium; hoc erat antiquum macellum ubi olerum copia), lying just
outside the porta Carmentalis, in the
ninth region of Augustus. Its
south-east and north-east limits were marked by the Servian wall and
the slope of the Capitoline hill, and it extended north-west across the
present Piazza Montanara. On the west and south-west it probably
extended originally to the river, but was afterwards diminished in area
and practically enclosed by four temples, erected in foro holitorio, to
PIETAS, IANUS, SPES and
IUNO SOSPITA (qq. vv.), and the theatre of
Marcellus. The ruins of three of these temples exist beneath the church
of S. Nicola in Carcere (for restorations, see D'Esp.
Mon. ii. 128-129).
By the second century B.C. the forum had been paved, and considerable
fragments of its pavement of travertine have been found between S.
Nicola in Carcere and a wall of peperino that crosses the Piazza Montanara,
for a distance of about 90 metres (
BC 1875, 173). The details given as
to this wall are insufficient; but it is noticeable that Lanciani omits
it in LF 28 ; cf.
BC 1917, 168 sqq. and pl. xiv., xv., where he deals further
with the porticus in vicolo della Bufala. This peperino wall perhaps
marks the northern limit of the forum which, after it was surrounded
by buildings, was about 125 by 40-50 metres in area. Its eastern corner,
between the Capitoline and the Servian wall, was closed by a building,
apparently a large porticus, that has been erroneously identified with
the
PORTICUS MINUCIA (q.v.). Its ruins were found in the Vicolo della
Bufala (HJ 515;
NS 1891, 316;
Mitt. 1892, 292). Other remains of
this portico, at a slightly different orientation, are also to be seen in Piazza
Montanara (
NS 1879, 314). The forum was connected with the vicus
Iugarius and the forum Boarium by a street that ran south through the
porta Carmentalis (see in general, HJ 507-515; P1. 389-392; Richter
192-194; ZA 236-248).
