Foro Romano

After visiting the Colosseum, we toured the Roman Forum

Arch of Titus commemorates Emperor Titus for his victory in putting down a rebellion in Judea, an event which had tragic consequences for the rebels, many of whom were scattered or enslaved. In this war, Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem was sacked and looted.

We are standing on the ruins of Basilica Aemilia, the ruins of a civil basilica in the Roman Forum, looking East with our backs to the West.

Behind us can be seen the Arch of Septimius Severus, and Curia Julia where the Roman Senate convened. The Senate was paramount during the Roman Republic, but reduced to a rubber-stamp assembly during the Roman Empire. Unfortunately the manifestation of representative government in Rome was a system of patronage, which focused naturally on local issues, and thus was unable to govern concerns of empire. And it fostered a divide between the Optimates and Populares, which populist autocrats such as Marius and Julius Caesar were able to exploit.

Emperor Constantine completed construction of the Basilica of Maxentius, after defeating Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, the outcome of which led Constantine to convert to Christianity. However the Basilica itself is completely secular. Why was there more than one Emperor? Because Emperor Diocletian had previously created a system of multiple Emperors known as the Tetrarchy.

The ruins are only a third of the original structure.

From this angle we are standing on the NW approach of Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill is the hill where Augustus built his Palace, and is according to some combination of Mythology and Archeology, the hill on which Rome was founded.