Travel Tips

The Forum was the ancient Rome`s biggest and most important public square. It lied within the valley of the 4 Roman hills - Palatinus, Capitolius, Esquilinus and Quirinalis. When the ancient Romans started to farm on the hills, built up their homes there and needed to find a place where they could exchange their products. An ideal place was the valley between their homes - the Forum.
Later this place become a public square, the only square they had for long. When the Roman commanders cam back from winnig battles, they celebrtaed their triumph by parading in their carts on Via Sacra next to Rome and went to the Temples of Jupiter to show sacrifice to their Gods.
Later it bacame a place where the Roman statesmen prepared their speeches and senators made decisions for the sake of teh city.

This Arch was build in honour of Ceasar Septimus Severus in 203 A.D. for keeping the Roman state alive and expanding its boundaries.
The Arch is covered by relifs showing the triumphs of the ceasar, above the two smaller gate the relifs are commemorating when the Roman troops conquered the town of Ktesiphon.

The ancient building od the Senatus was burnt down and rebuilt several times during its history. It was the residence of the Senatus, 300 senators were sitting there during the sessions. In the far end of the buliding, Augustus made an altar built for Victoria, and every Senator entering the building was obliged to show sacrifice to Victoria till the 4th century, when the christianism was so strong that the ceasar accepted to remove the pagan altar from the Curia.