The forum of Trajan, erected by the emperor Trajan, with the foreign spoils he had taken in the wars; the covering was all brass, and the porticos exceedingly beautiful.
The chief fora venalia or markets, were boarium, for oxen and beef, suarium, for swine, pistorium, for bread, cupedinarium, for dainties, and holitorium, for roots, sallads and similar things.
The comitium was only a part of the Roman forum, which served sometimes for the celebration of the comitia; here stood the rostra, a kind of pulpit, adorned with the beaks of ships taken in a sea fight, from the inhabitants of Antium in Italy; here causes were pleaded, orations made, and funeral panegyrics delivered.
CHAPTER IX.
Porticos, Arches, Columns and Trophies.
The porticos are worthy of observation: they were structures of curious work and extraordinary beauty annexed to public edifices, sacred and civil, as well for ornament as use.
They generally took their names either from the temples which they stood near, from the builders, from the nature and form of the building, or from the remarkable paintings in them.
They were sometimes used for the assemblies of the senate; sometimes the jewellers and such as dealt in the most precious wares took their stand here to expose their goods for sale; but the general use they were put to, was the pleasure of walking or riding in them, like the present piazzas in Italy.