Forum Augusti

The Forum of Augustus and Temple of Mars Ultor, dedicated in 2 B.C., comprised one of the most magnificent of Augustus’ building projects in Rome, and is noted for its programmatic sculpture and refined architectural design (for bibliography, Kockel); for Pliny, the Forum Augusti was among the most beautiful of the city’s architectural wonders (NH 36.102: forumque divi Augusti; cf. Suet., Aug. 29.1: forum cum aede Martis Ultoris). The architectural form of the forum derived in large part from the *Forum Iulium and the *Forum Romanum: a paved, open square (125 x 90 m), flanked by marble colonnades and dominated on a short side by a temple, here the gleaming Temple of Mars Ultor whose Luna marble Corinthian columns rose from a high podium at the forum’s N end (index no. 109a). Long porticoes with columns of colored marble defined the E and W sides of the forum, and at their N ends the rear walls bowed out to form two broad hemicycles, housing a series of portrait statues emphasizing the lineage of Augustus: one featured men of the Julian clan, the other the summi viri of Rome (Suet., Aug. 31.5; Dio Cass. 55.10.3; Pliny, NH 22.13; Degrassi, Inscr. Ital. 13.3 nos. 1-39; SHA, Alex. Sev. 28.6). At the far N end of the W portico is the “Sala del Colosso”; this room was lavishly decorated with colored marbles and featured a colossal statue, perhaps of Augustus. Prevailing opinion places the main entrance of the Forum Augusti on its short S side, which would require the forum to be accessed through the Forum Iulium, and a recent hypothesis restores a third portico along this unexcavated border (La Rocca 171, with caution); these hypothetical features have not been depicted on our rendering. Though adjacent to, and clearly influenced by, the Forum of Julius Caesar, the physical and programmatic relationships between Augustus’ forum and that of Caesar await further clarification. Numerous activities were held in the Forum Augusti including senate votes, religious rituals and, especially, decisions involving foreign policy (Dio Cass. 55.10.1-5; Zanker; Richardson 162). Portions of the forum may also have been used by the praefectus urbi for criminal trials (Suet., Aug. 29.1; s.v. *Praefectura Urbana). For paintings, sculptures and other objects on public display there: RG 35 (in foro Aug.); Pliny, NH 7.183 (in foro Augusti), 34.48, 34.141, 35.27, 35.93-94; Serv., ad Aen. 1.294; and Paus. 8.46.4-5. The Forum Augusti was erected within a densely built up section of Rome, and its site was largely conditioned by preexisting buildings and topographic features: by the *Argiletum, by the street N of the forum which led to the *Quirinal (*Vicus Laci Fundani), by the dense construction of *Subura, by the Forum Iulium, and by the rising slope of the saddle that linked the *Arx and Quirinal and the residences which stood upon it (cf. *Domus: Sex. Pompeius, *Domus: Cn. Calpurnius Piso). In fact, Suetonius reports that consideration for the residents of the area shaped the eventual appearance of the forum itself, as Augustus was unable to procure all the land he had originally desired and was unwilling to evict home-owners to make way for his plans (Aug. 56.2; with some reservations, Richardson 160). The constraints within which the forum architect(s) operated are made manifest in the irregular NE end of the forum with its towering fire-wall of gray peperino and Gabine stone (Bauer); here the lines of the wall mirror the meandering path of the street leading to the Quirinal, while the need for such a defensive screen speaks to the dangers of the crowded quarter of Subura which loomed N of the forum. Opening onto the street N of the forum were two tabernae incorporated into the rear fire-wall (Bauer 229); also accessed from this street was the Domus of Sextus Pompeius, of which a colonnaded atrium survives.