Public Forum

The forum was the beating heart of any Roman community. Originally an open market, it developed from a selling space to become the theatre for all important civic business: oration, gladiatorial contests, games, trials, executions and triumphal processions by returning armies. It was even used for elections. The original Forum in Rome was built on drained marshland in one of the oldest sections of the city. It grew into a hive of bustling trade with several huge buildings surrounding the public square. Government offices stood alongside cattle markets as the whole of Roman society rubbed shoulders as they traded, debated and socialised. Everywhere the Romans went they built new forums as essential meeting places and centres of commerce.