The Forum of Julius Caesar - History

The Forum of Julius Casesar, alternatively known as the Forum Iulium, Forum Julium, or Forum Caesaris, is known as the first of the imperial fora and begins several trends. One of these trends is the practice of building public forums as part of taking power to show stability- Augustus, Vespasian, Domitian, and Trajan all follow in Julius' footsteps and build their own forums as part of their rule.

Land for the forum used to be private property before being purchased by Caesar through Cicero, with the original intent being that the Roman Forum needed an expansion- as the city grew, more space became necessary. The rumored final cost to purchase all the land needed for building the Forum is one hundred million sesterces, which would be about 1,000,000 Euros. In order to build his own fora, Caesar rearranged the Roman Forum and the Cornitium. The placement of his own forum was not lost on the Senate- Caesar intended for his place of power to be close to the Senate and the Curia, a fact the Senate didn't take kindly to when forced to move their location.

The Forum itself is around 115 meters long and 30 wide, surrounded by a colonnade or a double colonnade and a wall. It had a large, open space towards the front with a temple towards the back. The temple was originally meant to be dedicated to Venus Victriux, his rival's favorite goddess of Venus as a bringer of Victory and whom he'd earlier devoted his own temple to. Caesar, however, lateer changed his mind and instead dedicated the temple to Venus Genetrix, Venus as the mother. By dedicating the temple to her, Caesar tied himself further to Rome itself- as Venus was believed to be Aeneas' mother, Caesar could then trace his bloodline not only to one of the founders of Rome, but to the gods themselves.

Construction for the forum was believed to have begun in 54BC and inaugurated in 46BC. Despite this, Augustus is credited with actually finishing the forum later, when he added shops and offices to the west side. Upon its completion, the forum was dedicated to Caesar and his accomplishments. The temple did have to be rebuilt while under the reigns of Domitian and Trajan, after the removal of the gap between Capitolne Hill and Quirinal Hill. Also under Titus, a huge fire destroyed much of Rome in 80AD, including Forum of Julius Caesar. It was not restored until 15 years later, under the rule of Emperor Domitian. Given the long wait to restoration, there is some speculation today that Domitian had some personal interest in the forum.  Later, during the early 20th century, Mussolini restored the Imperial Fora as part of his own propaganda purposes.

Underneath the forum, 5 cremation tombs were found by archarologists between July of 1999 and April of 2009. A team of archaeologists under Anna de Santis and Paola Catalano also found an inhumation tomb (a body that was not cremated) from 10th century BC in May 2006.

[for more information on the art of the Forum of  Julius Caesar, please click here. To see the page of sources for the above information, please click here.]