Day 7: What happened at the Roman Forum?

Roman Form Perspective

Robert Hughes in ‘Rome’ writes of a report probably composed by famous architect Bramante and painter/architect Raphael  that ‘the Rome of antiquity had been mercilessly despoiled by the Romans themselves, the fine stone of the ruins looted, the columns felled and carted away, th

e marble statues and friezes burned for lime, the bronzes melted down.  This had been going on for hundreds of years, without hindrance from Pope or Senate. The Romans had done more damage to Rome than the worst of the Barbarian invasions. Compared to them “Hannibal would appear to have been a pious man.”  “ Why should we bewail the Goths, the Vandals, and other perfidious enemies of the Latin name, when those who above all others should be fathers and guardians in defence of the poor relics of Rome have even given themselves over to the study – long study- of how these might be destroyed and disappear?”

Trajan's Column

So it was that we found the Roman forum – despite all the ‘urbicide’, archaeological studies have made some sense of the multiple layers of buildings in the Ronan Forum and Palatine Hill and our audio guide helped us make sense of the jumbled ruins that span 2700 years of history.  Some of the most impressive spots include:

• Trajan’s column – built to mark Trajan's war victories in 113 CE and still intact but with Trajan replaced by a bronze of Peter on top
• The shopping complex of 150 shops and offices called Mercati Traianei (2^nd Century CE) – the first shopping mall?  Maureen loved this!
• The Forum of Caesar Augustus (2 BCE) where you can see where great discussions and debates took place
• The Temple of Saturn with 8 columns still standing
• The church of Saints Cosmos and Damian with brilliant 5^th century mosaics in the apse
• The Arch of Titus (81CE) almost rivalling the Arch of Constantine with friezes depicting his sacking of Jerusalem.
• The Palatine Hill where there was archeologically evidence of the huts built by Romulus and Remus the founders of the city about 750 BCE.
• The huge Palatine Stadium several levels below the hill used by Emperor Domitian for races and athletics



looking towards at Trajan's Markets
 with Forum of  Trajan in foreground



looking across House of Vestal Virgins
 (statues of virgins in mid-ground) 

• House of Vestal Virgins (priestesses dedicated to Goddess Vesta).  This tradition started with Romulus, founder of Rome, and the house is as it was in Nero's time of 64 CE.

 Of course we ran out of time to look at everything and make sense of it all – however our ‘grand tour’ was still very worthwhile and gave us great admiration for the history of the Romans.

                                    

Palatine Palace

Temple of Saturn - side on

Monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II

On the way back from the forum we had a closer look at the impressive monument marking the establishment of modern Italy with Vittorio Emmanuale II at the centre.  Apparently the Italians have mixed feelings about it ans some call it the ‘typewriter’  but I thought it captured the ancient Roman columns in a modern building and stands above the Roman forum symbolising the future rather than the past.