Monday morning – continuing our tour with Angel Tours

The Roman Forum was a bit overwhelming …and we didn’t even see all of it.

The amount of history and ruins and stories and scandals in the space basically the size of a city block …. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it justice …

No, really … . the history:

Slightly aerial view of the Roman Forum

From Rick Steves:

The Forum was the political, religious, and commercial center of the city. Rome’s most important temples and halls of justice were here. This was the place for religious persecution, political demonstrations, elections, important speeches, and parades by conquering generals. As Rome’s empire expanded, these few acres of land became the center of the civilized world.

Rick Steves map of the Forum (view larger here):

As we started down the hill from Palatine, first stop the Arch of Titus.

From Rick Steves:

The Arch of Titus commemorated the Roman victory over the province of Judea (Israel) in AD 70. The Romans had a reputation as benevolent conquerors who tolerated the local customs and rulers. All they required was allegiance to the empire, shown by worshiping the emperor as a god. No problem for most conquered people, who already had half a dozen gods on their prayer lists anyway. But Israelites believed in only one god, and it wasn’t the emperor. Israel revolted. After a short but bitter war, the Romans defeated the rebels, took Jerusalem, destroyed their temple (leaving only the foundation wall — today’s revered ‘Wailing Wall’), and brought home 50,000 Jewish slaves … who were forced to build this arch (and the Colosseum).

More from Rick Steves:

Roman propaganda decorates the inside of the arch, where a relief shows the emperor Titus in a chariot being crowned by the goddess Victory. The other side (pictured below) shows booty from the sacking for the temple in Jerusalem – soldiers carrying a Jewish menorah and other plunder. The two (unfinished) plaques on poles were to have listed the conquered cities. Look at the top of the ceiling (above). Constructed after his death, the relief shows Titus riding an eagle to heaven, where he’ll become one of the gods.

As we come down the hill this is the view of the main square of the Roman Forum …. where (it feels like) EVERYTHING happened.

Do you see the chainlink fences? That is because they are STILL doing excavations. Always. There are thousands of years worth of layers in this part of the world …. Apparently it takes forever to construct new subways because of all the excavation.

From Rick Steves:

The original Forum, or main square, was this flat patch about the size of a football field, stretching to the foot of Capitol Hill. Surrounding it were temples, law courts, government buildings, and triumphal arches.

The square was the busiest and most crowded – and often the seediest – section of town. Besides the senators, politicians, and currency exchangers, there were even sleazier types — souvenir hawkers, pickpockets, fortune-tellers, gamblers, slave marketers, drunks, hookers, lawyers, and tour guides.

The Forum is now rubble, but imagine it in its prime: blinding white marble buildings with 40-foot-high columns and shining bronze roofs; rows of statues painted in realistic colors; processional chariots rattling down the Via Sacra.

Below is a semi-panorama of the Forum:

(I believe the below is the House of the Vestal Virgins. More on them later)

In the panorama shot above, on the farthest right you can see the top/front part of this temple, behind the tree – the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina.

See that cross at the very top? This building has survived intact so long because it was converted from a heathen temple into a church …

The brick platform at the foot of the stairs was believed to be an altar, for sacrifices and the like.
It wasn’t excavated yet when the building acted as a church.

From Rick Steves:

Although the temple has been inhabited by a church, you can still see the basic layout – a staircase led to a shaded porch (the columns), which admitted you to the main building (now a church), where the statue of the god sat. Originally these columns supported a triangular pediment decorated with sculptures.

Picture these columns, with gilded capitals, supporting brightly painted statues in the pediment, and the whole building capped with a gleaming bronze roof. The stately gray rubble of today’s Forum is a faded black-and-white photography of a 3-D Technicolor era.

The building is a microcosm of many of the changes that occurred after Rome fell. In medieval times, the temple was pillaged. Note the diagonal cuts high on the marble columns – a failed attempt by scavengers to cut though the pillars to pull them down for their precious stone. (Vinegar and rope cut marble … but because vinegar also eats through rope, they abandoned the attempt.) In 1550, a church was housed inside the ancient temple. The door (green) shows the street level at the time of Michelangelo. The long staircase was underground until excavated in the 1800s.

Image below: the winged chariot statue kind of in the middle? On the top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument – not in the Forum, but we’ll see it on a later day.

The arch? The Arch of Septimus Severus (again with the Harry Potter)

According to Ken, our tour guide, Septimus Severus was the first Emperor from outside the European continent. He and his father’s family were from Libya, so potentially half black on his father’s side.

I don’t remember all the details that Ken told us (I need an audio recorder), but if you look at the inscription on the top part of the arch, you can see where some of the words were etched out and changed.

From Wikipedia:

After the death of Septimius Severus, his sons Caracalla and Geta were initially joint emperors. Caracalla had Geta assassinated in 212; Geta’s memorials were destroyed and all images or mentions of him were removed from public buildings and monuments. Accordingly Geta’s image and inscriptions referring to him were removed from the arch.

Image below: columns in the left side are what is left of the Temple of Saturn

From Rick Steves:

These columns framed the entrance to the Forum’s oldest temple (497BC). Inside was a humble, very old wooden statue of the good Saturn. But the statue’s pedestal held the gold bars, coins, and jewels of Rome’s state treasury, the booty collected by conquering generals.

Handsdown, most annoying thing about the Forum was all these modern statues throughout. By Costa Rican artist Jimenez Deredia. Throughout. I’m not entirely sure why. Ken said that Italy gets a lot of its coffee from Costa Rica, so maybe it’s a schmoozing type thing?

Super annoying.

Below is the Senate building or Curia Hostilia

From Rick Steves:

The Curia was the most important political building in the Forum. While the present building dates from AD 283, this was the site of Rome’s official center of government since the birth of the republic. Three hundred senators, elected by the citizens of Rome, met here to debate and create the laws of the land. Their wooden seats once circled the building in three tiers; the Senate president’s podium sat at the far end. The marble floor is from ancient times.

The Curia building is well-preserved, having been used as a church since early Christian times.

(Can you believe that all of this is basically in the same city block?)

Image below – the Temple of Julius Caesar:

From Rick Steves:

Julius Caesar’s body was burned on this spot (under the metal roof) after his assassination. The mound of dirt (behind the wall) usually has fresh flowers – given to remember the man who, more than any other, personified the greatness of Rome.

Caesar (100-44BC) changed Rome – and the Forum – dramatically. He cleared out many of the wooden market stalls and began to ring the square with even grander buildings. Caesar’s house was located behind the temple. He walked right by here on the day he was assassinated.

Though he was popular with the masses, not everyone liked Caesar’s urban design or his politics. When he assumed dictatorial powers, he was ambushed and stabbed to death by a conspiracy of senators, including his adopted son, Brutus.

The funeral was held here, facing the main square. The citizens gathered, and speeches were made. Mark Anthony stood up to say (in Shakespeare’s words), “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” When Caesar’s body was burned, the citizens who still loved him threw anything at hand on the fire, requiring the fire department to come put it out. Later, Emperor Augustus dedicated this temple in his name, making Caesar the first Roman to become a god.

Ken, explaining some of the finer points of Roman history …

Image below – the Temple of Vesta:

From Rick Steves:

This is perhaps Rome’s most sacred spot. Rome considered itself one big family, and this temple represented a circular hut, like the kind that Rome’s first families lived in. Inside, a fire burned, just as in a Roman home. And back in the days before lighters and butane, you never wanted your fire to go out. As long as the sacred flame burned, Rome would stand. The flame was tended by priestess known as Vestal Virgins.

Vestal Virgins from Wikipedia:

The high priest (pontifex maximus) chose by lot from a group of young girl candidates between their sixth and tenth year. To obtain entry into the order they were required to be free of physical and mental defects, have two living parents and to be a daughter of a free born resident in Italy.

To replace a vestal who had died, candidates would be presented in the quarters of the chief vestal for the selection of the most virtuous. Tacitus (Annals ii.30,86) recounts how Gaius Fonteius Agrippa and Domitius Pollio offered their daughters as vestal candidates in AD 19 to fill such a vacant position. Equally matched, Pollio’s daughter was chosen only because Agrippa had been recently divorced. The pontifex maximus (Tiberius) “consoled” the failed candidate with a dowry of 1 million sesterces ($5 million).

Once chosen they left the house of their father, were inducted by the pontifex maximus, and their hair was shorn. The high priest pointed to his choice with the words, “I take you, Amata, to be a vestal priestess, who will carry out sacred rites which it is the law for a vestal priestess to perform on behalf of the Roman people, on the same terms as her who was a vestal on the best terms”.^[9] Now they were under the protection of the goddess. Later, as it became more difficult to recruit vestals, plebeian girls were admitted, then daughters of freed men.

The Vestal Virgins lived next door ….

looking back at the Forum main square …

And (finally) … just a little gallery to give you an idea of the rubble, the ancient pieces that are just EVERYWHERE. Literally, just lying around in the overgrown grass. This is all a part of the constant excavation, I’m sure …. I would imagine this is just a never ending project …