07/29/2026
𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐞
One of the excursions I took from the ship was a two-hour walk through old Rome. We began at the magnificent Trevi Fountain and made our way through the city toward the Colosseum. Along the route, we passed one of the most remarkable places in Rome: the Roman Forum.
It may look like a quiet landscape of broken columns and weathered stone today, but for centuries the Forum was the beating heart of Roman life. The low valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills had originally been marshy ground. Beginning around the seventh century BC, the Romans drained and developed it, gradually transforming it into their most important public gathering place.
The Forum was not created according to one grand plan. It grew over many generations as temples, government buildings, law courts, monuments and large public halls called basilicas were added. By the imperial period, its central open square measured approximately 130 by 50 metres, but the surrounding civic and religious district extended much farther and eventually connected with the additional Imperial Forums.
Imagine how busy it must have been. Senators debated public affairs, magistrates administered the law, lawyers argued cases and politicians addressed the crowds from the Rostra. Religious ceremonies took place in the temples, triumphal processions passed through the square and merchants conducted business nearby. Citizens came to hear news, settle disputes, worship, socialize and watch the machinery of the Roman state at work. It was a city centre, courthouse, parliament, marketplace and ceremonial stage all in one.
The Forum remained important for more than a thousand years. Its greatest influence stretched across the Roman Republic and Empire, although activity continued after Rome’s political decline. The Column of Phocas, dedicated in AD 608, is generally considered its final ancient monumental addition. Over the following centuries, buildings were abandoned, converted into churches or stripped of stone, and much of the valley was eventually buried beneath soil and debris.
Its influence, however, never disappeared. Roman forums became models for civic squares throughout the empire, and their architecture still echoes in today’s courthouses, legislatures, banks and government buildings. Even our use of the word “forum” for a place where people exchange ideas comes from this tradition.
There is also a distant resemblance to the modern shopping mall or mixed-use town centre: a central place where people gather, conduct business, exchange information and observe public life. But the Roman Forum was much more than a shopping destination. It brought commerce, religion, justice, politics and ceremony together in one shared civic space.
Walking past these ruins on the way to the Colosseum, I tried to imagine the noise, colour and movement that once filled this valley. What survives may be stone, but the Roman idea of creating a central place where society comes together is still very much alive.
