Plan Drawing	Drawing	Engraving

More drawings available on The GBC CD-ROM.   Contributions appreciated.

"The foreground is occupied by a paved square with monuments to famous people. The temple to the Divine Julius, dedicated in 29BC to the deified Caesar (the first case of political deification in Rome), built in a Hellenistic style, is located in the background on the left; to the right is the temple of Vesta and the house of the Vestal Virgins, guardians of the everlasting flame (the only priestesses in Rome); further to the right is the temple of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux (Greek gods whose cult was brought to Rome in the 5th century BC) dedicated in 6 A.D. Here the office of weights and measures was situated. The podiums of the temples of Caesar and the Dioscuri were often used as orators' platforms and it is in this part of the Forum that the meetings of the comitia took place. On the far right is the Basilica Julia built by Caesar in 54 B.C. Its long faŤade (101 metres/110 yards) occupies the entire south side of the Forum."

— John Julius Norwich. The World Atlas of Architecture. p160.

"The Roman Forum was not simply the core of an ancient city; for many it was the center of the universe. From the birth of the empire under Augustus in 31 B.C., and for nearly five hundred years thereafter, Rome ruled—with lacunae—most of what we call the civilized world. From Scotland to the Sahara, and from Gibraltar to the Euphrates, the Roman Empire was in control. Moreover, Rome was the handmaiden of our alphabet, a bellwether of urban organization and its legal institutions, and the creator of startling new horizons in architecture."

— from G.E. Kidder Smith. Looking at Architecture. p26.