1 = Basilica Julia
2 = Temple of Saturn
3 = Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (on Capitoline hill)
4 = Tabularium (Archive Building)
5 = Temple of Vespasian
6 = Rostra
7 = Temple of Concord
8 = Triumphal Arch of Septimius Severus

This is a reconstruction of the west end of the Roman Forum.  For a more inclusive birds eye reconstruction of this part of the Forum from above the Capitoline, click here.  See a photo of this part of the Forum, taken from the Palatine hill.

 The Forum was the political and legal center of Rome.  There also were important temples in the Forum.  We will be concerned only with four of these buildings: the Curia (Roman Senate house), the Rostra (speaker's platform), the temple of Saturn, and the Basilica Julia.  The members of the senatorial aristocracy spent their workdays in the Forum attending the senate, giving political speeches from the Rostra, and practicing law in the Basilica Julia (and the Basilica Aemilia).  Until the late first century BC, the lower classes joined with the aristocracy in voting assemblies that convened in the comitium in front of the Curia.  On religious holidays, temples like that of Saturn would be the site of religious ceremonies attended by both the lower and upper classes.

Of course, the Forum was not just for serious political and religious activities; it was also a place of social intercourse, where the latest gossip could be exchanged after the workday was over.  For the unemployed, attending trials in a basilica or listening to speeches from the Rostra was a form of entertainment.  The Forum was no doubt continuously filled with crowds of people throughout the daylight hours.

Here's a description of life in the Forum in the early second century BC, taken from a comedy by Plautus:

I'll show you where you can easily find every sort of person, so that
no one will waste too much time if he wants to meet someone vicious
or virtuous, or decent or indecent.  If you want to meet a perjurer go
to the comitium (at this time, in front of the Curia); if you want a liar
and a braggart, got to the temple of Cloacina (in front of the Basilica
Aemilia; cloacina = sewer that ran through the Forum; the goddess
Cloacina was often identified with Venus); for wealthy, wasteful husbands,
seek around the Basilica (probably the Basilica Porcia somewhere near the
Curia, exact location unknown).  There too will be worn-out whores, and the
men who habitually haggle for them; the contributors to the eating clubs
you'll find in the fish market.  In the lower Forum good substantial
citizens stroll about; in the middle Forum, near the Canal (perhaps the
Cloaca Maxima, the great sewer running through the Forum, which
eventually was put underground), they are mere exhibitionists; above
the Lake (probably the Lacus Curtius, a small sacred opening in the
ground) are the impudent, talkative, spiteful fellows, who boldly abuse
others for no good reason, and who have plenty of things that could
truthfully be said against themselves.  Below the old shops (later
replaced by the Basilica Julia) are those who lend and borrow at interest.
Behind the temple of Castor are those whom you would trust quickly to
your sorrow. (Curculio 467-81, Duckworth translation, adapted)

Return to Contents.