From Etruscans and Romans to Modern Times - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 59

Drastic laws were passed providing that all slaves in a household, even when they
numbered in the hundreds, might be killed if one of them murdered his master. [64]
A MENU OF SITES AND SIGHTS
With time and energy, wise travelers can make their way to over one hundred sites of an-
cient Rome. Here are several that help convey the spirit of the place.
T HE F ORUM R OMANUM (I MPERIAL F ORUM )
Its location is important. It lies at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, the highest of the seven
hills of Rome and the political center of the republic and empire. The modern monument
to the unifier of Italy, Vittorio Emmanuelle, is atop the Capitoline—an intentional political
symbol. Nearby is an equestrian statue of the emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
Below the hill, the Imperial Forum is an agglomeration of five forums built over 165
years by Julius Caesar and four successive emperors. From its beginnings, the forum was
the site of government buildings, temples, and shops. The Roman Senate was located here.
Senators, priests, merchants, and generals made it their business to see and be seen here.
This is where Caesar was murdered. And this is the location of the Golden Milestone, from
which all roads led and returned to Rome. The forum today is a landscape “littered” with
bits and pieces of temples, lonely columns, a crumbling triumphal arch, and uneven marble
slabs. But a wise traveler's imagination helps to turn back the centuries.
Figure 5.4. Roman Forum