Get comfortable! Today we will give you a taste of a sensational journey to discover the Imperial Forums of Caesar and Augustus, to relive firsthand glimpses of the private and public history of our ancestors.
Let yourself be carried away by Travels in the Forums of Caesar and Augustus with the narrating voice of Peter Angela. The open-air event in collaboration with Paco Lanciano that started in April awaits you until 11 November 2018.
A capillary reconstruction of small and large events of social, political and economic life to delve into the history of Ancient Rome and catapult into the reality of more than 2000 years ago through films and reproductions projected on the forum.
The Roman Forums between history and symbols
Today the column of the Emperor Phocas, Byzantine, which would have remained unknown to most were it not for the work erected as a thank you by the Pope for the Pantheon. It was the last building erected in the Roman Forum. We were already in Middle Ages, in 608 AD The Western Roman Empire no longer existed and Italy was a kingdom inhabited by Gothic barbarians in eternal struggle against the Byzantines.
Il Lapis Niger (black stone) is among one of the most important monuments of the Roman Forums, yet one of the least known. At the time the place was sacred because tradition has it that the tomb of Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome.
It is also necessary to mention the thousand of gold, the starting point of all the consular roads that branched off in the Empire, - hence the saying "all roads lead to Rome" -. Although today what remains is nothing more than a column base, in its original form it had a large cylindrical stump with a gold coating. A road network of 100.000 km branched off from the millennium and connected the whole Empire.
Next to the area of the Roman Forums other forums began to emerge from the XNUMXst century BC, each bearing the name of a great person.
The Imperial Forum: the Forum of Caesar
We are in 46 BC It is the first forum set up in the capital: 160 m of large colonnades that served as a corollary to the square looked up at what we now call Avenue of the Imperial Forums.
For the expropriation of housing and the construction of the medieval quarter Cesare availed himself of the help of the lawyer Cicero. He invested the modest sum of 1 million gold coins (300 million euros) for this capital work.
In the center, the emperor had a statue built that portrayed him on horseback, like that of Alexander the Great, his model. Behind, the temple of Venus parent. Caesar himself claimed to be a descendant of Venus through Anchises and Aeneas.
We continue the journey in the Senate. The reconstruction shows a monumental building to give solemnity to the place where the senators decided the fate of the Roman people. But it was not here that Caesar he was killed by the second of the 23 stabs inflicted on him by his close friends, but in the current one Largo Tor Argentina.
The body was placed on a pyre where it burned for two days and two nights in the Roman Forum, that of the Republican age. After the Caesarian age it was the turn of the emperor's rise Augusto, his adopted son. Thus a five-year period of imperial power alone is inaugurated.
The Imperial Forum of Augustus
Ottaviano he had promised to have a Roma a temple to avenge the death of his uncle Caesar - dedicated to Mars Ultor - in the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC
According to gods Imperial Forums, Forum of Augustus, as the ruins of 3 of the 8 dorizie columns 15 meters high each show, it was about 125 by 118 meters long.
To date, unfortunately, via dei Fori Imperiali covers the front and what remains appears crushed and very far from the splendor of the past. The square was flanked on the main sides by two porticoes raised on three steps and made up of columns of cipollino marble on which ran a high attic decorated with caryatids, alternating with shields of Jupiter Ammon and other divinities.
The center was occupied by the statue of Augustus on the triumphal chariot. Then another large statue of 14 meters occupied the bottom of the portico: the Colossus of Augustus.
… This and much more awaits you with open doors. Do not miss an unforgettable experience to experience with your eyes the auspicious of the imperial Rome of the past.
Attend the event Trips to the Imperial Forums of Caesar and Augustus to involve all the senses and give a face to your past.
