forum

Roman forum at sunrise, with St Peter's Basilica in the background. The forum (literally ‘market-place’) was a large, open public space found in every Roman town. Rome itself had several, of which Trajan's Forum, begun by the emperor Trajan in AD 113, was the latest and most magnificent. It contains Trajan's Column, a huge monument commemorating his campaigns.

In an ancient Roman town, the meeting place and market, like the Greek agora. In Rome the Forum Romanum contained the Senate House, the public speaking platform, covered halls for trading, temples of Saturn, Concord, and the Divine Augustus, and memorial arches. Later constructions included the Forum of Caesar (temple of Venus), the Forum of Augustus (temple of Mars), and the colonnaded Forum of Trajan, containing Trajan's Column.