Forum, Roman, was the section of ancient Rome that served as the center of government. It was the administrative, legislative, and legal center of the Republic and of the Roman Empire. Many important buildings and monuments stood there, including the Curia (Senate house), the temples of Concord and Saturn, the Basilica Julia and Basilica Aemilia, the Arch of Septimius Severus, and the Tabularium (Hall of Records).
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Events in the Roman Forum often affected the rest of the known world. Marcus Tullius Cicero’s stirring speeches on the floor of the Curia in the 60’s B.C. saved the Republic from a rebellion led by Catiline. Also at the Forum, in 27 B.C., the senate gave Augustus the powers that made him the first emperor of Rome. Romans went to the Forum to hear famous orators speak and to see the valuables seized after distant battles.
In Rome’s earliest days, the Forum area was a swamp used as a cemetery by the people of surrounding villages. The Etruscans turned these villages into the city of Rome and drained the marshes, probably during the 500’s B.C. Residents built shops and temples around the edges of the Forum area. The Forum became the civic and legal center of Rome by the mid-100’s B.C., and the merchants moved their shops to other parts of the city.
The Germanic peoples who invaded Rome in the A.D. 400’s did not destroy the Forum. But its buildings gradually crumbled after the fall of Rome, and people came to call it Cow Plain because it had become so desolate. Excavations have since uncovered many of the ancient columns and arches. Rome had other forums, some with architecture as outstanding as that of the Roman Forum. Several emperors named forums in their own honor. But only the first forum was called Forum Romanum (Roman Forum).
