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FORUM, ROMAN
Forum, Roman, was the section of ancient Rome that served as the center of government. It was the
administrative, legislative, and legal center of the Republic and of the Roman Empire. Many important
buildings and monuments stood there, including the Curia (Senate House), the temples of Concord and
Saturn, the Basilica Julia and Basilica Aemilia, the Arch of Septimius Severus, and the Tabularium (Hall
of Records).
Events in the Roman Forum often affected the rest of the known world. Marcus Tullius Cicero's stirring
speeches on the floor of the Curia in the 60's B.C. saved the Republic from a rebellion led by Catiline.
Also at the Forum, in 27 B.C., the senate gave Augustus the powers that made him the first emperor of
Rome. Romans went to the Forum to hear famous orators speak and to see the valuables seized after
distant battles.
In Rome's earliest days, the Forum area was a swamp used as a cemetery by the people of surrounding
villages. The Etruscans turned these villages into the city of Rome and drained the marshes, probably
during the 500's B.C. Residents built shops and temples around the edges of the Forum area. The Forum
became the civic and legal center of Rome by the mid-100's B.C., and the merchants moved their shops to
other parts of the city.
The barbarians who invaded Rome in the A.D. 400's did not destroy the Forum, But its buildings
gradually crumbled after the fall of Rome, and people came to call it Cow Plain because it had become so
desolate. Excavations have since uncovered many of the ancient columns and arches. Rome had other
forums, some with architecture as outstanding as that of the Roman Forum. Several emperors named
forums in their own honor. But only the first forum was called Forum Romanum (Roman Forum).
Contributor: D. Brendan Nagle, PhD., Associate Prof., Univ. of Southern California.
Roman Architecture (Forum)
At the center of many Roman cities was a big open space called the Forum. People met there to do
business, to sell things and buy things, to see their friends, to find out about the news, and even to
go to school. Usually the Forum had stone pavement, and around the edges there were fancy
buildings: temples, and basilicas, and sometimes stores (shops). In some cities the Forum had a
platform in it that people could stand on to make speeches. This platform was called the Rostra.