Block 2 Unit 2 Understanding monuments: Rome's fora

Question 1

Introduction

Fora

Answer 1

Rome’s monumental heart, the FORA (or forums) both = plural

Forum - an open space used a a meeting place for political and social business, as well as a market place

Capitalised = Specific forum/area and its associated monuments - Nerva’s Forum, Roman Forum

Question 2

Architectural terms

Answer 2

Portico - a roofed porch (prime translation) or walkway supported by columns

Cavea - the seated area of a theatre, usually built into a natural slope.

Basilica - a large oblong hall or building with double colonnades (a row of columns supporting a roof or arcade) and a semicircular apse, and with a a central nave and lateral aisles and lit by a clerestory, the row of windows above the inner colonnades. It is used in ancient Rome as a law court or for public assemblies.

Exhedra - a semicircular or rectangular recess open on one side to a lobby or court

Cella: the inner or main chamber of a temple

Temple - (from the Latin word templum) is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual rituals and activities

Peristyle: a colonnade surrounding the space within a building such as a court or internal garden

Adyton - the most sacred inner part of a temple, usually at the end of the cella furthest from the entrance, often with restricted access to the initiated or priests.

Question 3

2. 1 Introducing Rome’s Fora
3. 3 Rome’s Imperial Forum

Which ones?

Answer 3

Imperial Fora - Caesar, Augustus, Vespasian, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian

Roman Forum (Forum Romanum) - the city’s original forum the inspiration for the other Imperial Fora. A monument of Rome’s Regal and Republican past.

Its history - a microcosm of the history of the Late Republic, the traditional symbolic unity of Senate and People all history between The Republic and Augustus is reflected there - Patterson

Question 4

2.3.1 when and Where were the Imperial Fora and what where they used for?

Answer 4

Built between 50BCE and 115CE, highly visible statements of imperial power - both within the city of Rome and in the wider empire.

Could be used as routes to cross the city from one side to the other - emphasises and reinforces imperial power, controls the movement of people. Emperors used it to demonstrate their magnanimity by embellishing public spaces, building new shops, offices and libraries (Trajan and Hadrian)

Huge walls separated the Forum of Augustus a physical barrier between it/the fora and the Suburba (living areas of the city)

Granduer and wealth expressed in expensive stone - e.g. marbles and granites form Greece, Turkey, Numidia, Tunisia and Egypt

Question 5

2,4 The empire in Rome - Emperors demonstration of their power, how so in what way?

Answer 5

Julius Caesar - Extension of the Forum by his temple to Venus Genetrix ‘mother Venus’ an ‘ancestor of the Julian clan - aspiring to divine ancestry

Augustus - Temple of Mars Ultor, porticoes and exhedra flanking it filled with the statues of the emperor and his ancestors and the heroes of Roman myth and history

Emperors by building temples make themselves ‘part of history’ emphasising continuity not change, Emperors of new dynasties tended to build new Fora.

Victory - Domitian deployed reliefs of conquered provinces (or those he claimed to have conquered) Also, Trajan/Hadrian’s column showing Dacian defeat

Question 6

2.5 Functions f the Fora

Answer 6

City’s and empire’s leaders, politicians and emperors publicly display their wealth, power and authority

It made Rome’s leaders known, a lasting legacy to be exploited by them and their successors, e.g. Hadrian allies himself with Trajan his adoptive father to establish his legitimacy

Functional too - Markets, law courts

Note primary source, Fora can be interpreted in different ways by scholars in their arguments