Sunday, 25 June 2023

Discover the Roman Forum



  Trip date: 2023.05.11  


The Roman Forum (latin: Forum Romanum) is located near the most iconic tourist site, the Colosseum.
The rectangular plaza is surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings, where the citizens of the ancient Rome were referred.


            Historical information

For centuries the Forum was the center of day-to-day life in Rome: the site of triumphial processors and elections; the venue of public speeches, criminal trials, gladiatorial matches and commercial affairs.
It was the teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history.
Located in a small valley between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, today it's a spawling ruin of architectural fragments and intermittent archaelogical excavations.

Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum.
The Roman Kingdom's earliest shrines and temples were located on the southeast edge. These included the ancient former royal residence, the Regia (8th century BC) and the Temple of Vesta (7th century BC), the surrounding complex of the Vestal Virgins, all of which were rebuilt after the rise of the Imperial Rome.

Over time, the archaic Comitium was replaced by the Forum, and the judical activity moved to the new Basilica Aemilia (179 BC). Later Julius Caesar built the Basilica Julia, along with the new Curia Julia, refocusing both the judical offices and the Senate itself.
This new final Forum served as a revitalized city square where the people of Rome could gather for commercial, political, judical and religious pursuits in ever greater numbers.


            

               Surviving structures


    

    The Column of Phocas


A monumental column, build when Rome was the part of the Eastern Roman Empire after its reconquest from the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths.
Erected on front of the Rostra and decicated or rededicated in honour of the Eastern Roman Emperor Phocas on August 1, 608 AD, it was the last addition made to the Roman Forum.








    Temple of Saturn

An ancient temple to god Saturn, its ruins stand at the foot of the Capitoline Hill at the western end of the Roman Forum.
The original dedication of the temple is traditionally dated to 497 BC.
Construction is thought to have begun in the later years of the Roman Kingdom under Tarquinius Superbus (Rome's seventh and very last King). Its inauguration by the consul Titus Larcius took place in the early years of the Republic, making it the oldest Republican temple after the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

Th

e present ruins represent the third phase of the Temple of Saturn, which was built after the fire in 360 AD.



    Temple of Vespasian and Titus


Located between The Temple of Concordia and the Temple of Saturn, which is dedicated to the deified Vespasian and his son, the deified Titus.
It was begun by Titus in 79 AD after his father's death and his succession - completed by Titus' brother, Domitian in approximately 87 AD (when it got its final name).
The importance extends to the respect and deification of the family.







    Arch of Septimius Severus


The commemoration of the Parthian victories of Emperor Septimius Severus and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, dedivated in 203 AD.
After the death of Severus, his two sons became intial emperors, Geta get assassinated by his brother Caracalla - this is the reason for  Geta's memorials were destroyed from the arch and public buildings.






    Temple of Vesta


Located near the Regia and the House of the Vestal, it housed the fire Vesta's holy fire - which was a symbol of Rome's safety and prosperity.
The temple's current, ruinous form employes elements of Greek architecture with Corinthian columns and marble.
Built by Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius, among the original Regia (King's House) and the House of the Vestal Virgins.





   

   


 House of the Vestal Virgins


The House of the Vestal Virgins (latin: Atrium Vestae) was the residence of the vestal virgins, located behind the curcular Temple of Vesta, between the Regia and the Palatine Hill.
Near the atrium dwelled the Pontifex Maximus (High Priest) until that role was assumed by the emperors.



                The Structure
























The Atrium Vestae was a three-story 50-room palace, built around an elegant elongated court of double pool. An open vaulted hall to the very east with a statue of Numa Pompilius, the mythological founder of the cult (12).

The complex lay at the foot of the Palatine Hill, where a sacred grove (2) that was slowly encroached upon lingered into Imperial times. It was rebuilt several times in a course of the Empire, among other things because the Roman Fire in AD 64.
After the Dissolution of the College of the Vestals in the late 4th Century AD, continued to serve as a residence building.

Today, remains of the statues of the Vestals can be seen (6).




   

    Basilica of Maxentius


In ancient Rome, a basilica was a rectangular building with a large central open space, and often a raised apse at the far end from the entrance. Basilicas served a variety of functions, including a combination of a court-house, council chamber and meeting hall. There might be, however, numerous statues of the gods displayed in niches set into the walls.
As a result of the building programmes of the Christian Roman emperors the term basilica later became largely synonymous with a large church or cathedral.

Construction began on the northern side of the forum under the emperor Maxentius in 308 AD, and was completed in 312 by Constantine I after his defeat of Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. The building rose on the north side of the Via Sacra, close to the Temple of Peace, at that time probably neglected, and the Temple of Venus and Rome, whose reconstruction was part of Maxentius' interventions.

During the 6th century, the building was called "templum Romae".

The south and central sections were probably destroyed by the earthquake of 847.
In 1349 the vault of the nave collapsed in another earthquake. The only one of the eight 20-metre (66 ft) high columns that survived the earthquake was brought by Pope Paul V to Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in 1614. All that remains of the basilica today is the north aisle with its three concrete barrel vaults. The ceilings of the barrel vaults show advanced weight-saving structural skill with octagonal ceiling coffers.

The artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) drew many etchings of the basilica.
The building became an inspiration for many buildings built afterwards, including New York City's former Penn Station.
Many ancient, medieval and modern painters and artists immortalized the structure in their works.



    

    Basilica Aemilia


The Basilica Aemilia (Italian: Basilica Emilia) was a civil basilica in the Roman Forum, in Rome, Italy. 
Today only the plan and some rebuilt elements can be seen. The Basilica was 100 meters (328 ft) long and about 30 meters (98 ft) wide. Along the sides were two orders of 16 arches, and it was accessed through one of three entrances.

            Pre-existing building

The new basilica was built on a site of the 5th-century BC tabernae lanienae ("butcher shops") and later (4th century BC) the tabernae argentariae. The latter housed the city's bankers, and after a fire was renamed tabernae novae ("new shops").
The square had two facing rows of shops. A first basilica had been built behind the tabernae argentariae between 210 BC and 195-191 BC, the date in which it is mentioned by Plautus. Archaeological studies have shown that this building comprised three naves paved with tuff from Monteverde, the back façade having a portico which opened to the Forum Piscatorium and the Macellum (the area later occupied by the Forum of Nerva).

            The Basilica Fulvia-Aemilia

It was erected in 179 BC by censor Marcus Fulvius Nobilior with the name of Basilica Fulvia.
After the latter's death, his colleague Marcus Aemilius Lepidus completed it, and it was frequently restored and redecorated by the members of the Aemilian gens, giving the basilica its current name.

The 78 BC consul, also called Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, embellished it with the clipei ("shields"). This intervention is recalled in a coin from 61 BC by his son, the triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.

In the year 50BCE, Julius Caesar " gave the consul Paulus fifteen hundred talents with which he added to the beauty of the forum by building the famous Basilica which was erected in the place of the one called "the Fulvia".

            The Basilica Paulli

A new edifice in substitution of the Basilica Fulvia was begun in 55 BC by Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus, and inaugurated by his son in 34 BC. This edifice had similar lines to the preceding one; however with a reduced length and a second nave in lieu of the back portico.
The columns in the central nave, in African marble, had Corinthian capitals and friezes with deeds from the history of Republican Rome. The columns in the second row were in cipolline marble and, finally, the external ones had Ionic capitals.

After a fire, Augustus in 14 BC heavily restored the edifice.[1] In this occasion the tabernae which preceded it towards the Forum square and the portico were totally rebuilt.

The basilica was restored again in 22 AD.
On its two-hundredth anniversary, the Basilica Aemilia was considered by Pliny to be one of the most beautiful buildings in Rome. It was a place for business and, in the porticus of Gaius and Lucius (the grandsons of Augustus) fronting the Roman Forum, there were the Tabernae Novae (New Shops).
The main hall or court (100 m long and 29.9 m deep) was located behind the shops.

The wooden roof, the Tabernae as well as the facade of the basilica were completely destroyed by fire when Rome was sacked by Alaric the Visigoth in 410 AD. On the colored marble floor one still can see the green stains of bronze coins from the early fifth century that melted in the fire.

An earthquake in 847 caused the final collapse of the remaining structure. The remains were used as building material. Conspicuous remains of the basilica could still be seen in the Renaissance, they were however used for the Palazzo Giraud Torlonia.




There are several remains that I didn't take a picture of, so with the requirement of completeness:




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Location: Róma, Olaszország

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