In 44 BC, the death of Julius Caesar plunged the Roman world into the last and most bloody of its civil wars. With the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC, Octavian, his adopted son and heir, was left undisputed ruler of Rome; four years later, he was proclaimed Augustus. There now was peace, and all the resources of the Mediterranean world at his disposal. Seeking to build a capital worthy of the empire over which it ruled, Augustus boasted that he had "found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble." And, indeed, the Forum Romanum essentially is Augustan, restored and rebuilt with only a few later additions. The temples of Saturn, Concord, Castor and Pollux, Divine Julius, the basilicas of Julia and Aemilia, the Curia and Rostra--all took their final form during his triumvirate and principate.
Tabularium
Built in 78 BC and restored by Claudius in 46 AD, the Tabularium or record office was the repository for official State archives, its arcade of ten large arches providing a dramatic backdrop from which to view the Forum below and the Colosseum in the distance.
Temple of Saturn (Aedes Saturnus)
Dedicated in 498 BC, this is the oldest sacred place in Rome, after the Temples of Vesta and Jupiter. It was rebuilt in 42 BC and again, somewhat badly, in the fourth century AD, when the classical tradition of working in stone had been lost. The surviving Ionic columns, with their scrolled volutes, date from this period. Because of the link of Saturn with agriculture, the original source of Rome's wealth, the temple was the repository for the State treasury, the Aerarium Populi Romani (from "aes," bronze), which was located beneath the stairs. It also contained the bronze tablets on which Roman law was inscribed. In the cella was an ivory statue, its feet fettered with woolen bonds.
Temple of Vespasian (Templum Vespasiani et Titi)
Begun by Titus after the death of his father Vespasian in 79 AD, the temple was completed by Domitian when Titus, himself, died two years later. Three fluted columns from the southeast corner of the pronaus still carry part of the entablature, the magnificent frieze of which is decorated with implements of sacrifice and bucrania (ox skulls or heads, which were believed to ward off evil). The architrave surmounting the Corinthian capitals show the last few letters of an inscription, "Restituer[unt]" (they restored), commemorating the restoration of the temple by Severus and his son Caracalla, which still could be read in the 8th century, when it was recorded by a visitor from Switzerland.
Temple of Concord (Aedes Concordia)
Traditionally vowed in 367 BC to commemorate the reconciliation between patricians and plebians, the temple was rebuilt in 121 BC to foster harmony after the murder of G. Gracchus. It was restored during the reign of Augustus by Tiberius, who rededicated the shrine in 12 AD. The temple often was used for meetings of the senate, especially in times of civil disturbance. The restoration was distinguished by the opulence of the marble and rich architectural ornamentation. In the cella, a row of Corinthian columns, the capitals of which had pairs of leaping rams in place of the corner volutes, was raised on a continuous plinth projecting from the wall, which divided the cella into bays, each containing a niche. The exterior cornice and its modillions (the brackets that support the projecting part of a cornice) are considered the finest architectural fragment to survive from the Augustan period. The temple was endowed with such a wealth of fine Greek sculpture, paintings, and other works of art that it seems to have become a museum. (Curiously, the Umbilicus Romae is out of place in this view.)
Temple of Jupiter (Aedes Iuppiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus)
Glittering high above the Forum on the Capitoline Hill, the temple dates to Tarquinius Superbus, the last Etruscan king, and was of great religious and political importance. It was here that the consuls offered sacrifice on entering office and here that victorious generals ended their triumphal processions. The temple was completely destroyed by fire in 83 BC, including the Sibylline Books that were kept in a stone chest underground. There was another fire in 69 AD during the struggle for power that followed Nero's death. It was rededicated, only to be destroyed five years later by the fire of 80 AD. Each time, the temple was restored to even greater magnificence. Domitian plated the doors with gold and tiled the roof with gilded bronze. Inside was a chryselephantine statue of Jupiter with limbs of ivory and drapery of gold or gilded bronze. (In this view, its pediment can be seen behind the Temple of Saturn. Barely visible behind the Arch of Severus is the pediment of the Temple of Juno Moneta).
The only road to the Capitoline Hill, the Clivus Capitolinus was a continuation of the Sacra Vita that began at the Arch of Tiberius, which was erected in 16 AD to commemorate the recovery of Roman standards lost on the German frontier seven years earlier, and ran along the Temple of Saturn before cutting sharply to the right and ascending the Capitol. This distinction between a street that had an incline (clivus) and one that was level (vicus) was strongly felt by the Romans.
Temple of Divine Julius (Aedes Iulius Divus)
Begun in 42 BC and dedicated by Augustus in 29 BC, the high platform on which the temple was built served as a rostra (Rostra Juli) and was decorated with the beaks of ships taken at Actium. In the front was a recessed semicircular niche and an altar that marked the site of the funeral pyre where Caesar's body had been cremated after his death on the Ides of March.
Temple of Vesta (Aedes Vesta)
Containing the sacred fire and the Palladium, an effigy of Athene (Minerva) believed to have been brought by Aeneas from Troy, this ancient temple was built in imitation of a primitive round hut, its hearth fire symbolizing the perpetuity of the Roman State. The principal duty of the six vestals who tended it was never to allow the fire to be extinguished, an arduous task in a small building with a vent in the roof. There also was danger of the building, itself, catching fire, which it sometimes did. The temple was destroyed in the fire of Nero in 64 AD, which reached this point of the Forum. The last time it burned, in 191 AD, it was restored by Julia Domna, the wife of Severus. (Nearby was the Regia, which was the seat of authority for the pontifex maximus or chief priest, the administrative and spiritual superior of the vestals, until Augustus assumed those duties and moved the official residence to the Palatine. It was restored in 36 BC, the curious trapezoidal shape an attempt to maintain the building's orientation to the points of the compass and still fit behind Divine Julius.)
Temple of Castor and Pollux (Aedes Castor)
Dedicated in 484 BC, restored in 117 BC, and rebuilt by Tiberius, who rededicated it in 6 AD, the Temple of Castor frequently served as a meeting place for the senate. There was a high podium with stairs leading down to a rostra, and in the intercolumniations at the base were a series of chambers (loculi) sealed by metal doors that served as repositories for the imperial treasury (fiscus) and as safe deposit for the wealth of private individuals (the unsavory reputation of the Vicus Tuscus nearby cannot have been reassuring). All that remains are three graceful columns, still surmounted by an entablature with a plain frieze and modillion cornice.
Rostra (Rostra Augusti)
Begun by Caesar and completed by Augustus, the New Rostra was moved from its location next to the Comitium. It was here that Antony delivered his funeral speech for Caesar, and here that the Triumvirs proclaimed the death of Cicero and other political rivals. At the north end of the Rostra was the Umbilicus Romae (the Navel of Rome), which represented the official center of Rome and the Roman world. At the other end was the Milliarium Aureum (Golden Milestone), erected by Augustus in 20 BC, when he was superintendent of the empire's road system. Sheathed in gilded bronze, the monument was in the form of a Roman milestone and regarded as the point where all the roads leading to Rome converged (on it, the major cities of the empire and their distance from Rome may have been inscribed).
Tullianum (Carcer)
The only prison in Rome, the Carcer was a trapezoidal building with cells for the detention of prisoners waiting the pronouncement of their sentence and a lower cell or dungeon, the Tullianum. The name may derive from the original function of the chamber as a springhouse, the water being drained off by a channel to the Cloaca (and by which corpses could be disposed). The Tullianum was not a place of imprisonment, which was not a punishment in Roman law, but where condemned criminals were held until they were executed. Having been triumphantly paraded through the Forum, foreign enemies were left at the Carcer, their conquerors proceeding up the Clivus Capitolinus to the Temple of Jupiter, where part of the spoils were dedicated. Jugurtha, king of Numidia, and Vercingetorix, who had tried to free Gaul from Caesar, both died in the Tullianum, let down into the pit to await their death by strangulation or starvation.
Senate House (Curia Julia)
Begun by Caesar to replace the Curia Hostilia, the new senate house (Curia Julia) was completed by Augustus in 29 BC, rebuilt by Domitian in 94 AD, and again by Diocletian after the fire of 283 AD. The height of the Curia was half the sum of its length and breadth, the ratio which Vitruvius prescribed for proper acoustics. In 59 BC, during his first consulship, Caesar arranged for the regular publication of important social and political news (Acta Diurna) so people in Rome and the provinces could read about the foolishness of his opponents.
Basilica Aemilia (Basilica Paulli)
Erected in 179 BC, completely rebuilt over two decades and dedicated in 34 BC, restored by Augustus in 14 BC, and then again in 22 AD on its two-hundredth anniversary, the Basilica was considered by Pliny to be one of the most beautiful buildings in Rome. Behind the arcade facing the Forum were the Tabernae Novae (New Shops). The colonnades at the short ends of the basilica were Doric, with triglyphs (projecting panels divided by two vertical grooves) separating metopes (the panels between the triglyphs) that were decorated with alternating bucrania and paterae (shallow libation bowls). Gordian's notebook illustrates just such a Doric frieze.
Basilica Julia
Begun by Caesar in 54 BC to replace an earlier basilica of 170 BC and completed by Augustus, it burned shortly afterwards and was rebuilt and dedicated in 12 AD. It burned again in the fire of 283 AD and was restored by Diocletian. Whereas the Basilica Aemilia was a place for business, the Basilica Julia was built to house the civil law courts. There also were tabernae for government offices and banking.
In 410 AD, six years after the seat of imperial government had moved to the safety of Ravenna, Rome was sacked by Alaric the Visigoth (one still can see the green stains on the marble floor of the Basilica Aemilia that mark where copper coins had melted). In 455 AD Rome was sacked by Genseric the Vandal, who removed half the gilt-bronze tiles from the roof of the Temple of Jupiter, and again in 472 AD by Ricimer. Four years later, in 476 AD, the last emperor was deposed and the Roman empire in the West ceased to exist. The temples, basilicas, and other monuments in the Forum eventually were abandoned and despoiled until even their names were forgotten. They were stripped of the metal clamps and nails that had joined them together, the stones reused, and the marble burned for lime. For hundreds of years these depredations would continue, and the site would be known only as "Campo Vaccino," the Cow Field. Not until the 19th century would the name of the Forum Romanum be heard again.
The principal sources for this nota were The Roman Forum (1970) by Michael Grant, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (1992) by Lawrence Richardson, Roman Imperial Architecture (1981) by J. B. Ward-Perkins, The Oxford Classical Dictionary (1970), and Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome (1968) by Ernest Nash.
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