Surprising History of the Roman Forum

Filed in archive Roman history on June 18, 2010

© icelight

Forum is the name applied by Romans place, especially the market place in a city, as the principal place of meeting where public affairs were discussed, courts of justice held, and money transactions carried on. In Rome the name applied particularly to the famous 'forum' or 'Forum Magnum', the low level space extending from the foot of the Capitoline Hill to the north -east part of the Palatine. Unlike the 'Fora' of the emperors this was a slow growth, and was only possible after the valley had been drained by the great 'cloacae'. The central space was the meeting place of the plebs, 'Comitia Tributa', while the patricians 'Comitia Centuriata', meet on the Comitium, adjoining the forum. Tradition ascribes the building of the Cloaca Maxima, which drained the valley of the forum and the Velabrum, to the fifth kings Tarquinius Driscus, the first of powerful race of foreign kings. Of the monuments of Primitive forum, one is certainly preserved - the Cippus with its archaic Latin inscription, which still stands near the traditional tomb of Romulus.