Rome Guide
Rome
The Roman Forum
The five or so acres that make up the Roman Forum were once the heart of the Mediterranean world, and, although the glories of ancient Rome are hard to glimpse here now, there's a symbolic allure to the place, and at certain times of day a desolate drama, that make it one of the most compelling sets of ruins anywhere in the world. You need some imagination and a little history to really appreciate the place but the public spaces are easy enough to discern, especially the spinal Via Sacra, the best-known street of ancient Rome, along which victorious emperors and generals would ride in procession to give thanks at the Capitoline's Temple of Juno. Towards the Capitoline Hill end of the Via Sacra, the large cube-shaped building is the Curia, built on the orders of Julius Caesar as part of his programme for expanding the Forum, although what you see now is a third-century AD reconstruction. The Senate met here, and inside three wide stairs rise left and right, on which about 300 senators could be accommodated with their folding chairs. Nearby, the Arch of Septimius Severus was constructed in the early third century AD by his sons Caracalla and Galba to mark their father's victories in what is now Iran. Friezes recall Severus and in particular Caracalla, who ruled Rome with a reign of undisciplined terror for seven years having murdered his brother. Next to the arch, the low brown wall is the Rostra, from which important speeches were made (it was from here that Mark Anthony most likely spoke about Caesar after his death), to the left of which are the long stairs of the Basilica Julia, built by Julius Caesar in the 50s BC after he returned from the Gallic wars. Across the Via Sacra, a shady walkway to the left leads to the Basilica of Maxentius, in terms of size and ingenuity probably the Forum's most impressive remains. Begun by Maxentius, it was continued by his co-emperor and rival, Constantine, after he had defeated him at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD.