The roman forum: political center of the ancient Rome

If you have decided to hire a private tour guide of Rome and you are enjoying driving across the ancient monuments in Rome, your guide will tell you that the Roman Forum belonged to the biggest city in the ancient world, Rome, which had in the first century AD approximately 1 million and 200 thousand people.

The political part developed from Rome in the planning, discussion and emanation of laws had effected from the Roman Senate. If one day it had happened you to walk in the area of the Forum 2000 years ago and you had heard to shout "ad rostra! " from a Roman citizen you would immediately have seen to hasten the crowd toward a precise point of the Forum, that is under the temple of Saturn (façade of the Tabularium that looks toward the Forum), to listen to the meetings of the oratories that adressed themselvesto the peoplefrom the "rostrum", a stage in stone raisedby the ground thatwas adjacent to "comitium", an area that went from the arch of Settimio Severo to the Curia from a side and up to the "rostrum" from the other.

Built in the VI° century before Christ it was demolished in the I° century before Christ during the reorganization of the whole Forum from Julius Caesar and of Octavain Augustus. Little of the remains of the Comitium is visible in today's Forum.

Really under the Comitium have been discovered the most ancient monuments in the archaic Rome (for example the Lapis Niger, a black stone attributed as an epitaphof Romolo, first king of Rome, on which the most ancient inscriptions were found known of the Latin language).

In the end, the Curia (Hostilia, Cornelia and Julia) was the placewherewere discussed andemanated the laws from the Senate and it stands between the arch of Septimius Severus and the Basilica Emilia. Built by Tullio Ostilio, third king of Rome, five times reconstructed, the last from Diocleziano in 283 AD.
Finally it is important to know that before the construction of the Colosseum (72-80), the main square of the Roman forum was destinated to the games of the gladiators. The Forum is crossed in fact in its underground part from corridors thatserved to make appear the gladiators in the main square.

Exploring the roman forum step by step is so breathtaking that the time and the noisy traffic of modern Rome disappears almost magically. Wondering through the steps of the ancient remains will help you to understand better how still today we are using roman institution and laws, like for example the contracts, the deposit or a custody of a thing, the tutoring of the kids because they are in minor age and so on.

It's not only true that the main achievements of the romans were based in wars but mainly the Romans were perfectly organized people who were able with their laws to solve problems and conflicts that no other civilization could solve at that time with their own laws, considered primitive.

Walking inside the roman forum will really give you the idea of the development of the roman civilization and of its decline, when christianity took over at the end of the roman empire.