Roman Forum

The first

It began as a marshy lake, and a sewer drained it

The Forum began as a marshy lake where water drained from the surrounding hills. It was drained in the 7th century BC with the Cloaca Maxima, a large covered sewer that emptied into the Tiber. Silt then raised the ground for centuries, and the travertine paving still visible dates from the reign of Augustus.

Day to day

For centuries it was the centre of everyday life

The Forum was the site of triumphal processions and elections, the venue for public speeches, criminal trials and gladiatorial matches, and the centre of commercial and legal affairs. Today it is a sprawling ruin attracting 4.5 million or more sightseers yearly.

4.5 millionor more sightseers a year at the ruins today

The turn

A speaker turned to face the people

Speakers on the Rostra long faced the Senate House, which put the orator's back to the people in the Forum. Caius Licinius, consul in 361 BC, is said to have been the first to turn toward the people, an act repeated two centuries later by Gaius Gracchus.

The triumph

Victorious generals ended their parade here

Victorious generals entered Rome by the Porta Triumphalis, went around the Palatine Hill, and came down the Via Sacra into the Forum. They then climbed the Capitoline Rise to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, and lavish public banquets followed back in the Forum.

The speech

Marc Antony spoke for Caesar from the New Rostra

In 44 BC Marc Antony gave his funeral oration for Julius Caesar from the partially completed New Rostra, later immortalized in Shakespeare's play. Caesar's body was burned on a site across from the Rostra, where the Temple to the Deified Caesar was built by his great-nephew Octavius.