A marsh first
The Forum lies on low ground between the Palatine and the Capitoline. In the beginning it was a wet valley, and it began to take shape as a public space only at the end of the seventh century BCE, once the land had been drained with channels running to the Tiber. That drainage became a great drain, the Cloaca Maxima, which still runs beneath the Forum today.
What happened there?
Almost everything public. Under the Republic, the Forum was the place for public meetings and law courts, lined with shops and open-air markets, and it was the scene of gladiatorial combats long before Rome had an amphitheatre. Politics happened in the open. The Senate met in the Curia, the Senate house. In the second century BCE the first civil basilicas went up, large covered halls where the courts sat.
Temples among the offices
Religion shared the same square. Among the buildings that survive in whole or in part are the Temple of Saturn, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Vesta and the Temple of the Deified Caesar. Like the temples of other Roman towns, they stood around the open square, so worship, politics and business happened within sight of each other.
When the Forum got too small
By the end of the Republic the old square could no longer hold all the business of an empire, and new forums were built next to it. Under the empire, the Roman Forum became above all a stage for ceremonies and monuments. Emperors added temples to their deified predecessors (Vespasian and Titus, Antoninus and Faustina) and arches to their victories: the Arch of Titus on the Via Sacra, after 81 CE, and the Arch of Septimius Severus, in 203 CE, for his victories over the Parthians. In the early fourth century came the last great buildings: the so-called Temple of Romulus and the huge basilica begun by Maxentius on the Velia.
The last monument
The last monument raised in the Forum is a single column. In 608 CE it was dedicated to the Byzantine emperor Phocas, more than a thousand years after the valley was first drained. The first systematic excavations began only after the unification of Italy in the nineteenth century.
Why does it look so confusing?
Because you are seeing many centuries at once, flattened to the same level. A temple of the Republic stands next to an imperial arch and a Byzantine column, and buildings that were once crowded together are now isolated ruins. It helps to walk with one question at a time: where did the Senate meet, where did people listen to speeches, where did the processions pass. The Via Sacra, the Sacred Way, crosses the valley and passes under the Arch of Titus, and following it is the simplest way to read the site.
Where to see it
The Roman Forum is part of the Parco archeologico del Colosseo, together with the Palatine and the Colosseum. In October 2026 the basic ticket for all three (€18 full price, €2 for EU citizens aged 18-24) gives one entry to the Forum and Palatine within 24 hours of your booked Colosseum time. Until 24 October the park is open 8:30-18:30 (last entry 17:30); from 25 October to 28 February it closes at 16:30. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month. Check the official site before you go, as prices and hours change.
Sources
- Parco archeologico del Colosseo, “Foro Romano”; “Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine” ticket page; “Opening times and tickets” (October 2026).
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Roman Forum”.
- Livy, History of Rome 1.38.6 (Perseus).
