#The front portico of
the Temple of Saturn, seen here in the foreground, stands at the foot of
Capitoline Hill in the western end of the Roman Forum
POLITICAL POWER AS WE
know it was invented in the ancient Roman Forum. It was a public square at the
centre of the imperial city. Lined with temples, senate debating chambers and
monuments. All decisions concerning the vast empire were made here. Today, it
is a vast, rock-strewn area studded with crumbled columns and rubble, alongside
several restored buildings. It was largely destroyed when the Western Roman
Empire collapsed in the late fifth century and, by the Middle Ages, it had
suffered the indignity of becoming a cow field. It wasn’t until the 18th-century
revival of interest in the Classical period that serious archaeoligcal
excavations began.
A stroll around the forum today is a trawl through layers of
history. Its central avenue – the Vias Sacra, or Sacred Way – was the route
taken by the Roman armies as they returned from newly conquered lands bearing
the spoils of their victories (and sometimes the dismembered bodies of their
vanquished foes). At the far end of the Via Sacra on Capitoline Hill, past the
rostrum from which emperors and senators would make speeches to friends, Romans
and countrymen, was the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus; here animal
sacrifices were made to the most powerful of the Roman gods after each battle.
Under Michelangelo’s watchful eye in the 16th century, the temple
was converted into a cathedral, symbolizing Christianity’s takeover of Roman
authority, and this was the only reason it survived the plunder that left most
of the other building stripped of their marble and stone after the fall of the
empire.
Across the way stands the Temple of Antoninus andFaustina, a
huge columned temple, so sturdy that it withstood the many attempts to pull it
downs by local keen to use the stone for their own houses.
Best of all is the
insight provided by the remains of the Casa delle Vestali, the home to the
Vestal Virgins. Each year, six girls were selected by lottery to move into a
life of luxury at the temple of Vesta, goddess of the home, where for 30 years
their primary task was to ensure that the temple’s sacred flame never went out
– and to remain a virgin. The consequences for any Vestal Virgin who did not
live up to the demands were grim-those who didn’t remain chaste were whipped,
marched out of the city in disgrace and buried alive.
Stop off at the museum inside the Senate building, which has
the latest discovered artifacts. Guided
tours of the Forum in English are worth the price.
