Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
monuments on a more epic scale than any previous Europeans, wowing their “barbarian”
neighbors.
• Now stroll deeper into the Forum, downhill along the Via Sacra, through the trees. Many
of the large basalt stones under your feet were walked on by Caesar Augustus 2,000 years
ago. Pass by the only original bronze door still swinging on its ancient hinges (the green
door at the Tempio di Romolo, on the right—if it happens to be open, peek in), and continue
between ruined buildings until the Via Sacra opens up to a flat, grassy area.
The Forum's Main Square
: The original Forum, or main square, was this flat patch
aboutthesizeofafootballfield,stretchingtothefootofCapitolineHill.Surroundingitwere
temples, law courts, government buildings, and triumphal arches.
Rome was born right here. According to legend, twin brothers Romulus (Rome) and
Remus were orphaned in infancy and raised by a she-wolf on top of Palatine Hill. Growing
up,they foundit hardtoget dates. Sothey andtheir cohorts attacked the nearby Sabine tribe
and kidnapped their women. After they made peace, this marshy valley became the meeting
place and then the trading center for the scattered tribes on the surrounding hillsides.
The square was the busiest and most crowded—and often the seediest—section of
town. Besides the senators, politicians, and currency exchangers, there were even sleazier
types—souvenir hawkers, pickpockets, fortune-tellers, gamblers, slave marketers, drunks,
hookers, lawyers, and tour guides.
The Forum is now rubble, but imagine it in its prime: blindingly brilliant marble build-
ings with 40-foot-high columns and shining metal roofs; rows of statues painted in realistic
colors;processionalchariotsrattlingdowntheViaSacra.MentallyreplacetouristsinT-shirts
with tribunes in togas. Imagine the buildings towering and the people buzzing around you
while an orator gives a rabble-rousing speech from the Rostrum. If things still look like just
a pile of rocks, at least tell yourself, “But Julius Caesar once leaned against these rocks.”
•Atthenear(east)endofthemainsquare(theColosseumistotheeast)arethefoundations
of a temple now capped with a peaked wood-and-metal roof.
Temple of Julius Caesar (Tempio del Divo Giulio, or Ara di Cesare):
Julius
Caesar's body was burned on this spot (under the metal roof) after his assassination.
Peek behind the wall into the small apse area, where a mound of dirt usually has fresh
flowers—given toremember themanwho,morethananyother,personified thegreatness of
Rome.
Caesar (100-44
B.C.
) changed Rome—and the Forum—dramatically. He cleared out
many of the wooden market stalls and began to ring the square with even grander buildings.
Caesar's house was located behind the temple, near that clump of trees. He walked right by
here on the day he was assassinated (“Beware the Ides of March!” warned a street-corner
Etruscan preacher).
