THE FORUM FROM THE CAPITOL, ROME
THE RUINS OF ROME
The Roman Forum
THREE
So many statues crowded the streets of the Forum at one time that Rome was said to have two equal populations, one in flesh and blood, the other in bronze and marble. This was almost literally true. The Forum was the center of Rome. It was the political and business meeting ground of the citizens. Situated in the valley between the seven hills of the city, it was the common property of the people of all the hills. So when anyone wanted to erect a statue or a gallows, a temple or a shop, he put it in the Forum. Naturally, the Forum became overcrowded.
The Forum Romanum was in the shape of an oblong, 690 feet long and 240 feet wide. It does not seem to be this large, however, since the space is so taken up by monuments.
In the beginning the Forum was the marshy battlefield of the early inhabitants of the Capitoline and Palatine Hills. When the ground was drained by great ditches it became under a united rule the most convenient place for political meetings, for business affairs, for the pageants of rich men’s funerals, for plays, and for gladiatorial games. For these purposes a central space, though but a small one was kept clear of buildings. Gradually even this space became filled with the ever growing crowd of statues and other honorary monuments.
Awnings were probably spread over this central space of the Forum, since square holes are found in the pavement which held masts on which the awnings could be suspended. Beneath the pavement also a network of passages was discovered. These passages were three feet below the surface, and eight feet high and five wide. They were probably used for scenic purposes when games and plays were given in the Forum.
The rostra stood in the Forum. This was a platform from which speakers addressed the people. It was decorated with the prows of captured ships. Thus, the platform was called the rostra, or beaks.
There is a story that one night in 362 A. D. a monstrous chasm opened in the Forum. The Romans were dumbfounded. The chasm must be closed before business could go on. The oracles said that the gulf would never close until Rome’s most valuable possession had been thrown into it. What was the most valuable possession of Rome? Some said one thing, some another. Then Marcus Curtius, a young man of noble family, announcing that nothing was more precious to Rome than her sons, leaped fully armed and on horseback into the chasm. The gulf closed immediately. Later the spot was covered by a marsh called Lake Curtius, and later still when the marsh had been drained, an inclosed space containing an altar marked the place.