Famous Architectural Edifices, Ancient and Modern.—The remains of ancient Rome have suffered severely from the vandalism and the neglect of past centuries, but they are now carefully preserved. The Forum, in some places nearly forty feet below the present street level, has been in great part excavated, and near it are many vestiges of by-gone Roman splendor, including columns, arches and ruins of temples.
Roman Forum.—In remote times, the marshy ground which later became the site of this famous Forum served as neutral territory whereon both the Romans (who occupied the Palatine Hill), and the Sabines (who occupied the Capitoline Hill) could meet. Gradually it became a market-place and an exchange, till, at length, all the important business of Rome and of the Empire came to be concentrated in and about the Forum.
A portico was built around the Forum, the first story being devoted to shops and the second to offices for the collection of taxes. After some centuries, these were destroyed by fire, when various basilicas and temples were erected in their places. The Forum existed as such till the eleventh century, A. D., when it was totally destroyed by Robert Guiscard. Becoming then a waste, the rubbish of the city was thrown there until the entire space was filled to the depth of twenty-four feet and the location and names of the ancient buildings lost. In the revival of learning, in the sixteenth century, interest began to be awakened in the ruins of ancient Rome, and, in 1547, excavations of the Forum were commenced, under Paul III., which, with much irregularity have continued to the present day.
ARCH OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS
An arch in the Roman Forum, dedicated 203 A. D., in commemoration of victories over the Parthians. It is of Pentelic marble, with a central arch and two side arches, flanked by four Corinthian columns on each face. There are panels over the side arches and a frieze above all with reliefs of Roman triumphs.
ARCH OF CONSTANTINE
Built in 312 A. D. in honor of Constantine’s triumph over Maxentius. Much of its abundant sculpture was taken from the destroyed church of Trajan.
The most conspicuous remains of the Forum are the columns of the Temple of Saturn, the temples of Castor and Pollux and of Vesta, and on its northern side the arch of Septimius Severus, the Curia, the Basilica Æmilia, and the temples of Antoninus and Faustina and of Romulus. In the middle of the eastern part rose the temple and forum of Julius Cæsar. The more ancient and famous forum from which Cicero spoke was at the western end.