Roman Forum

At the center of most 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.

Roman forum

This is the main forum in Rome, the biggest and the most important of the Roman fora (one forum, two fora). People first began meeting in this forum around 500 BC, at the time of the founding of the Roman Republic. The Senate met in the brick building on the right of the photograph (actually this is a later replacement for an older building that burned down). Little by little, rich men added temples, statues, triumphal arches, and basilicas to the forum, until by the time of Julius Caesar the forum was very crowded.

Forum of Julius Caesar

So Julius Caesar built a new forum off to the side of the first one. This is the forum of Julius Caesar. It has a temple at one end, but you can't see it in this picture. What you can see is the doors of a lot of little shops, for the businesses that were located in the forum. (In the time of Caesar, of course, the forum was paved in limestone blocks, not all grassy as it is now).

This is another picture of the forum of Julius Caesar. The big pinkish cement blocks in the front of the picture are from the temple of Venus that once stood here. You can also see the doors of the shops, and the peristyle that once ran all around the forum.

But there still wasn't enough room, and so the emperor Augustus built another forum near the forum of Julius Caesar.

Forum of Augustus, Rome

In the back of this Forum, you can see the remains of the temple - see the white marble steps going up to the temple, and the white columns along the sides? All around the temple there was open space for people to meet in and do business.

Other Roman towns also had fora- this is the forum in Pompeii, in southern Italy (you can see the volcano, Vesuvius, in the background). This one has a two-story peristyle going around it.

Forum of Pompeii

To find out more about Roman fora (one forum, two fora), check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

City : A Story of Roman Planning and Construction, by David Macaulay (1983). For kids - brilliant!

The Colosseum & the Roman Forum, by Martyn Whittock (2002). For kids.

The Roman Forum, by Michael Grant (1970). Out of date, but Michael Grant is an entertaining writer with a simple style which teenagers may appreciate.

The Colosseum
The Arch of Septimius Severus
The Arch of Titus
The Senate House
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