Today looking rather like a “heap of ruins,” which in a sense is exactly what it is, the great Roman Forum was at one time the center of political, religious, commercial and judicial life of the ancient republic. The Forum’s central position in the city of Rome made it a natural point of reference and focus for the capital. What was once a marshy valley where the dead were buried became the hub of ancient Rome.
The area where the Forum was, and where the ruins remain, is still referred to as the “centro storico” (historic center) of the Eternal City. The Forum is just a few block from where I live and I regularly march around its parameters on my daily exercise walks. It is now a fenced in open museum that attracts many tourists throughout the year, rain or shine.
In order to make the area more useful to the people of ancient Rome, the valley that eventually became the Forum was drained of water by diverting the River Velabro into the great sewer of Rome that had been constructed in the 7th century before Christ.
The Forum began as a place for the selling of food and other household goods, eventually replaced by large public structures, beginning around 185 B.C. The area was also divided into two parts with precisely defined functions. The northern part was the place of assembly, called the “Comitium” (we can see the modern word, “committee,” here), where political meetings were held and popular festivals celebrated.
Next to the “Comitium” was the “Curia,” also a word still used today, where the senators of the republic met, and also the “Rostra” (see here, “roster”), a platform where orators could speak. To the south of the government areas was the market where farmers and trades people sold their goods and where money changers worked. The well-preserved “Trajan’s Market” is from this time and very close to today’s busy street, the Via Nazionale. Well below today’s street level, at Trajan’s Market it is easy to see how the building functioned as a place with dozens of fairly small shops, much like a modern mall.
Most importantly, the Forum was the place where the gods were worshiped. The earliest temples included those of Saturn, the Dioscuri and Concordia. Other sacred sites were the temple of Vesta, for the priestesses, called the “Vestal Virgins,” and the temple of Regia, the residence of the high priest.
The Temple of Venus was the largest of the Forum’s holy places and contained an area for the goddess Roma, a personification of the city, and there was a section for Venus herself, a divine ancestor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the republic. Today this area is the site of the church and monastery of our Olivetan Benedictine brothers at Santa Francesca Roman, called “Santa Maria Nova” (New Saint Mary’s), where I was in March this year for a solemn profession of one of their monks.
The goddess Roma as a personification of the city of Rome makes me think of a personification of my hometown, Portland, Oregon. In 1985 (the year I came to Rome for studies) a statue was conceived and constructed, dubbed “Portlandia,” based on the design of the city’s official seal. The “Portlandia” copper sculpture is a gigantic stooping image (thirty-five feet high) of a woman dressed in classical clothing, holding a trident in her left hand and reaching down with her right hand. She is set above the entrance of the “Portland Building” on Fifth Avenue in downtown Portland. I know the name later got applied to a popular if irreverent television series, called “Portlandia,” mostly comprised of poking-fun at my old hometown.
But back to our topic. As ancient Rome grew to become the leading power of the world, so the Forum also grew. Within a relatively short span of time the center of Rome expanded to include many large basilicas, the rectangular shaped building that became the most common model for early Christian churches.
Over time, the imperial Forum ended up having a unified and magnificent appearance. The huge and imposing Arch of Titus at the Forum was constructed in 81 A.D. by the Emperor Domitian. It is located on the edge of the Forum and next to the Coliseum. In 70 A.D. Titus destroyed Jerusalem, considered a major victory for the Romans, and the Arch celebrates the battle. On the Arch of Titus are carved various illustrations, including the River Jordan as well as spoils of the battle, such as the sacred menorah and the altar from the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.
I confess to having no great love for the ruins of the Forum. They just aren’t “pretty” and fairly stark reminders of a long-dead civilization. I have much more interest in the Christian Rome that was home to some of the earliest followers of Christ and the site of the martyrdom for the faith of many, including Saints Peter and Paul and numerous others. The beautiful shrines built here to the martyrs’ memory have always held a more appealing lure for me than the Roman Forum. That is not to downplay the importance of the Roman empire for Western Civilization, but as Lord Kenneth Clark said at the beginning of his unsurpassed television series of the 1960s, called “Civilization,” the collapse of the Roman empire had to do, at least in part, with it simply being “exhausted” and “worn out.”
Somehow Christianity cannot be associated with those words, no matter “how bad it may be” in parts of the world. As a convert to Christianity toward the end of his life, I presume Lord Kenneth Clark recognized the durability, even unto eternity, of the Christian faith and all that it stands for. I am firmly in the same camp and am drawn to our Christian shrines over and again, whereas the Roman Forum, which I glance at on walks, makes me think about the past, but not the future. Christian churches and pilgrimage sites, on the other hand, call for attention to the past, the present and the future.
