FORUM TAURI
evidently an open forum in
Region V, in the neighbourhood
of the
HORTI TAURIANI (q.v.), and perhaps within the limits of the region
caput Tauri (
BC 1890, 280-3). References to both are found only in
mediaeval literature;
1 to the forum in connection with the martyrdom
of S. Bibiana (Catalogus codd. hagiograph. Paris, Brussels 1889, i. 522;
BC loc. cit.); and to the caput here and also elsewhere (Acta S. Bib.
in cod. Vat. 5696 (cf.
Jord. ii. 319; HJ 369);
LPD i. 127, 258). The
forum was therefore probably near S. Bibiana, while the caput Tauri
extended some distance around it, and was perhaps separated from the
horti Tauriani (
CIL vi. 29771) by the via Tiburtina vetus. It is not to
be confused with the locality known as
AD TAURUM (q.v.) near the
thermae Traianae. It is also possible that L. Statilius Taurus, consul
in 44 A.D., who owned the horti, constructed the forum and adorned it
with bulls' heads, which in turn gave the name to the surrounding
region. The porta S. Lorenzo was called porta Taurina in the twelfth
century and later (Urlichs, pp. 115, 127-130, 150).
