CAPITOL

ROMAN FORUM

The Romans  identified the beginnings of the Forum with the legendary founding of their city by Romulus in 753 B.C., when the war with the Sabines, touched off by the rape of their women, had ended.  A valley protected by 5 of the seven hills of Rome, that concentrates eleven centuries of history, from being the center of every aspect of the city’s life: religious ceremonies, scene of triumphs,  sacrifices and important funerals, to official communications of all kinds, edicts, prescriptions lists, the results of lawsuits.

The Roman Forum was the meeting place of everyone.

Today we see the remains of great  temples, dedicated to their numerous Gods, and the basilicas, considered to be a peculiarly Roman contribution to architecture,  and being taken as models for the great Christian churches. We see the commemorative and triumphal arches, the old Curia and the site of Julius Caesar’s funeral.

IMPERIAL FORUM

The success or Rome’s armies gave unprecedented power  to a series of leading generals, amongst them Julius Caesar, who in 49 BC and after crossing the Rubicon, invaded Italy, becoming dictator, absolute ruler of Rome. The Forum by him commissioned  ecame the first emblematic demonstration of dynastic ambitions in Rome.  The temple of Venus, at its center, was a demonstration of his  holy  origins.

This sample was followed by Augustus who was famous for his boast that he found Rome brick and left it marble. The Forum which Augustus dedicated the 2 Bc. was a powerful family statement . At its focus the massive Temple of Mars Ultor, the Avenger, a reference to Augustus’s avengement of Caesar’s murdered.

The Trajans’s forum with its basilica, column, libraries and market was considered to be one of the wonders of the classical world. Trajan’ column scarcely change since it was built in  the year 113 to represent Trajan’s military deeds  against the Dacians through marvelous reliefs.

COLOSSEUM

The Colosseum merits all the  praise of Roman geniality. It brings to us the genius of the Roman builders, both as a feat of engineering and work of architecture. This vast mass of stone, originally a third of a mile in circumference that potentially could hold  sixty five thousand or more spectators.

In ancient times the Colosseum was known as the Flavian Amphitheater, inaugurated by the Emperor Titus, member of the Flavian Dynasty,  in AD 80.

Only by visiting the Colosseum we can feel the thrilling emotion  that the Gladiatorial games and the wild animal’s hunting  stimulate in the Roman spirit during the Empire.

A famous proverb says that as long as the Colosseum stands, so will Rome; when Rome falls, so will the world.